Category Archives: Aviation

Kochi airport is set to resume flight operations at 14hrs on August 29, according to a recent update by Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL). In a meeting held at CIAL to review the damage control activities at Kochi airport, most of the stakeholders including airlines and ground handling agencies expressed their concerns over mobilising man power. About 90 per cent of their staffers got affected with the flood and are out of station. Nearby hotels, restaurants and eateries still remain closed. As central Kerala is yet to recover from post-flood trauma, it is a daunting task to arrange local commutation and logis­tics of catering items which will cause a cascading effect on the passengers. In view of these apprehensions, CIAL extended the date of resuming operations.

Jet Airways and Bangkok Airways have announced the expansion of their existing codeshare agreement to provide more choice and convenient travel options. Guests travelling between key destinations across Thailand, Vietnam and India, will benefit from this alignment between the two airlines. Moreover, this expanded partnership will offer guests enhanced connectivity and seamless access when travelling throughout the combined networks of both the airlines. On the occasion of the codeshare expansion, Gaurang Shetty, Wholetime Director, Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways and Bangkok Airways have been codeshare partners since 2013, and with this enhancement we will for the first time, be able to offer our guests seamlessly connectivity on codeshare flights to seven key touristic favorites across Thailand, as well as growing markets in Vietnam. This codeshare agreement will further lead to a boost in tourism and trade between India and these Asian nations.” Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, President, Bangkok Airways said “We are pleased to expand cooperation with Jet Airways to strengthen our respective route networks and offer business and leisure travelers with unprecedented and convenient access to new gateways.”

Travel agencies, corporate customers and travel technology providers in India can now find out about the airline group’s various direct sales interfaces on a new website. www.lhgroupairlines.com/ndc was set up as part of the NDC Partner Programme. This programme now bundles offers, exclusive content and solutions of the NDC API connection of Lufthansa Group Airlines on a single platform. The website is freely available on the internet and provides information on services that are beneficial for sales partners and customers, the so-called NDC Smart Offer, as well as technological and strategic cooperation options. The programme also offers user support for connected sales partners and training programmes. Travel agencies interested in the free web-based NDC solution SPRK can now register on the website and gain access to the booking and service platform. The registration is possible by filling in a form available on the new website. “We want to provide our local distribution partners with the best possible solutions. The newly launched NDC Partner Program and its website is an important tool. A steadily increasing number of travel agencies are already using and benefiting from NDC Smart Offer,” says Wolfgang Will, Senior Director Sales – South Asia, Lufthansa Group. “At the same time, we extend our NDC Smart Offer to Indian customers. Partners using one of the NDC solutions will benefit from an additional price advantage of Rs 1.500 to our destinations in Europe.”

Airbus has appointed Anand E Stanley, a veteran leader in the global aerospace and defence industry, to succeed Pierre de Bausset as President and Managing Director of Airbus India. Stanley and Bausset will work through a transition before the new appointment takes effect on October 1, 2018. Stanley brings a wealth of international experience in Sales, P&L management, M&A, Aftermarket and Manufacturing. His knowledge of the Indian market will deepen Airbus’ commitment to the local aerospace and defence industries, and will drive its indigenisation to boost India’s economic growth. He will pursue the consolidation of Airbus businesses in India with a view to further reinforcing the position of the group for long-term success and growth in India. “Anand will successfully leverage the large fleet of our products flying in India, our support and services capability, the quality of our engineering team and the deep links that have been forged with local aerospace and defense industrial partners,” said Patrick de Castelbajac, Executive Vice President – Strategy & International, Airbus. A polyglot who has lived and worked in eight countries, Stanley served as Global Executive Vice President – Strategy, The Linde Group prior to joining Airbus. He started his aerospace career at Pratt & Whitney before holding multiple leadership roles within UTC and Lockheed Martin.      

In a crucial update, Air China has announced that it will discontinue IATA commission on SOTO (sold outside ticketed outside) tickets effective September 1, 2018. According to a statement released by the airline, any ticket issue with wrong commission would attract Agency Debit Memo (ADM). Earlier, Jet Airways and Oman Air have also have withdrawn IATA commission for agents.

Due to heavy rains in Kerala, operations to and from Cochin airport have been suspended from August 15-18, 2018 on account of water rising in the operational area. However, Trivandrum and Calicut airports are available for scheduled operations. For international operations, both immigration and customs facilities are available 24*7 at these airports. Trivandrum airport can also accommodate wide-body aircraft. In view of the above and to cater for the stranded passengers, scheduled domestic airlines have been advised to reschedule their flights to/from Cochin to Trivandrum and Calicut airports till such time the situation at Cochin airport returns to normal. All scheduled domestic airlines have been advised to ensure that airfares for flights to/from   Trivandrum   and   Calicut  airports  in   Kerala are kept at optimal level proportionate to sector distance so that travelling public is not inconvenienced.

TruJet is now connecting 14 major destinations in South India including Cuddapah, Nanded, Bellary, Mysore and Salem in the Regional Connectivity Scheme. The airline has been further awarded with 20 new routes in the western and eastern states, and will connect Kandla, Porbandar, Keshod, Jaisalmer, Jalgaon & Nasik from Ahmedabad & Burnpur, Cooch Behar, Tezu and Rupsi from Guwahati. This ushers the commencement of the second phase of TruJet‘s “Sky for ALL” effort where Trujet connects Bharat with India and promotes the unserved/underserved cities to the metropolitans. TruJet has been the first airline to complete all the route connectivity in the first bid of UDAN and Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a citation for TruJet for being the first airline to commence flight operation in all the RCS routes awarded in UDAN.  

Commercial operations are all set to start from Kannur International Airport in Kerala from October 1, 2018. This was recently announced at a joint press conference by Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister, Civil Aviation, along with KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism; Jayant Sinha, Minister of State, Civil Aviation; as well as RN Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation. The officials shared that all the pending licences would be cleared before September 1 and the final aerodrome licence would also be given by that date. The airport will play a major role under the UDAN scheme of the government. Also, three domestic carriers will be operating international flights from this airport. Jet Airways will be flying to Abu Dhabi; Go Air would ply to Dammam and IndiGo will be flying to Doha from Kannur airport.

In 2017, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport handled 63.5 million passengers and made it to the list of the top 20 busiest airports of the world. As per the Airports Council International (ACI), which has come out with these rankings, the IGI Airport is now one of the fastest growing airports in the world. According to ACI, “Delhi, the country’s busiest airport for passenger traffic, grew by 14.1 per cent year-over-year at 63.45 million, pushing it up from 22nd to the 16th busiest airport in the world.”

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, alongside KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C),  Tourism and Jayant Sinha, Minister of State, Civil Aviation, has announced that operations of wide-bodied aircraft will be restarting from Calicut Airport in Kerala. Accordingly, DGCA has accepted the safety assessment and advised AAI for commencing operations of A330 and B-777 aircraft of Saudi Arabian Airlines with strict compliance with the mitigation measures to ensure safety operations. In future, any other airline may also start operations at the airport. With this move, a long standing demand of the people in Kerala as well as of the airline has been met. The minister also announced that in future, Calicut Airport could be used as an embarkation point for Haj operations too.