Category Archives: Aviation

Cairns will become the sixth destination for China Southern airlines’ operations in Australia, starting December 4. The announcement was made by Gloria Wang, General Manager, China Southern Airlines at a cocktail evening in New Delhi, celebrating 10 years anniversary of the airlines’ operations on the Delhi-Guangzhou route. The new flight connecting Delhi to Cairns via Guangzhou will operate thrice weekly. This addition gives a new perspective to the Indian market to use China Southern not only to travel to China but also to use it for its expanding networks globally. Talking about the future operations of the airline Wang added, “By 2020, China Southern Airlines will have 1000 aircrafts in its fleet and our flying map will cover many more international destinations in addition to our existing connections.”

According to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s domestic air traffic registered a growth of 16.43 per cent in September as compared to the same period last year. The Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January to September 2017 were 849.94 lakhs as against 726.98 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 16.91 per cent.  IndiGo carried the highest number of passengers, 3.6 million which was a 38.3 per cent share of the entire domestic aviation market. It was followed by Jet Airways with 1.4 million passengers and SpiceJet with 1.3 million. SpiceJet recorded the highest passenger load factor (PLF) or seat utilisation for the month of September at 94.2 per cent, followed by GoAir at 88.5 per cent and IndiGo at 85.2 per cent, Vistara at 84.1 per cent, Jet Lite at 83.3 per cent, Jet Airways at 80.2 per cent, Air India at 78.6 per cent, TruJet at 74.4 per cent and ZoomAir at 60.1 per cent.  SpiceJet reportedly commented, “This is the 31st month-in-a-row that SpiceJet has flown with load factors in excess of 90 per cent.” However, as compared to the previous months, the passenger load factor in September has shown a declining trend due to the end of tourist season, says the report by DGCA. In terms of on-time performance, IndiGo is at the top with 89.8 per cent of its flights arriving and departing as per schedule. Source: DGCA & inputs fro Business Standard

Finnair is poised to enter the largest expansion in its history during the upcoming winter season with new routes opening to 20 intercontinental destinations including India, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Lapland. Finnair is opening new routes to Goa from November 1, 2017; to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on November 5; to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on November 30 and to Havana, Cuba on December 1. Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Finnair says, “This winter, we are entering the biggest expansion phase in our airline’s 94-year history. We are opening several new destinations, expanding our network and fleet including our eleven Airbus A350s, adding capacity to Finnish Lapland and taking important strides in our customer experience. It’s a very exciting time to fly Finnair.” Finnair currently flies six weekly to Delhi, two weekly to Goa, and 16 weekly to Bangkok, among other Asian destinations. Due to the continued increase in demand for Lapland as a tourist destination, Finnair is also heavily expanding its capacity to several Lapland airports for the upcoming winter season. The airline is increasing its capacity to Lapland by over 20 per cent. As of mid-December, Finnair will start flying new non-stop flights to Lapland airports from London Gatwick, Paris and Zurich. Finnair is also increasing its capacity from Helsinki airport to several Lapland airports for the entire winter season and offers a total of 430,000 seats to five of Lapland’s airports during the winter season.

Jet Airways is all set to commence its third daily non-stop service between Mumbai and London Heathrow with effect from the forthcoming weekend. This makes Jet the only Indian airline to operate thrice daily services between Mumbai and London Heathrow – one of the world’s busiest airports. The latest frequency to London Heathrow – 9W 116, will depart on Sunday, October 29, 2017, from Mumbai on board Jet Airways’ Boeing 777-300 ER. The addition of the third flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow complements the airline’s existing operations to the English capital from its hubs in Mumbai and Delhi, aboard its flagship B777-300 ER aircraft. Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways said, “Jet Airways is delighted to offer a third non-stop service between Mumbai and London Heathrow. Our latest offering will enable us to capitalise on the demand and popularity of this sector, and together with our codeshare partners, allow us to offer convenience and seamless connectivity to travellers to 14 destinations in North America” The third frequency enhances onward connectivity over London Heathrow to North America. With partners Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic it will allow Jet Airways to offer guests improved connection times to 14 destinations over London Heathrow to North America including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Washington.

In an attempt to boost connectivity between Jammu and Doda, especially during the winter season, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir plans to begin a chopper service between the two destinations from Tuesday, October 24. Pawan Hans helicopters would be used for this service and will operate twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays between the two districts. The one-way fare for a traveller has been fixed at Rs. 2,500. The service is likely to help promote tourism and provide an alternative means to communicate between the two districts during the winter season when parts of the region remain cut off. Source: Financial Express

Air India plans to start a direct flight from Chandigarh to Bangkok from December 11, 2017, which will operate thrice a week, informed R K Negi, Local Manager, Air India. He said, “The direct flight from Chandigarh to Bangkok will commence on December 11 this year and the round trip initially will cost Rs. 22,000, while the rest of the cost will depend on the demand.” Negi also added that the airline’s latest aircraft – Airbus A320 Neo, will operate on this route and will offer 12 Business Class seats and 150 Economy Class seats. This aircraft will operate every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Chandigarh-Bangkok flight will be the third international flight operating from the Chandigarh International Airport. At present Indigo’s Chandigarh-Dubai and Air India Express’ Chandigarh-Sharjah flights are the only two international flights operating from Chandigarh. Source: Hindustan Times

Emirates, the world’s largest A380 operator, is set to receive its milestone 100th A380 aircraft on November 3, 2017. Over 80 million passengers have flown on the superjumbo in the nine years since it first joined Emirates’ modern fleet. Today, Emirates flies the A380 to over 45 destinations spanning Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Everywhere it operates, the Emirates A380 attracts consumer demand for its industry-leading inflight experience in all cabin classes and is welcomed by local economies as a contributor to tourism and visitor growth. Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “The A380 has been, and continues to be hugely popular amongst our customers, many of whom deliberately plan their travel so that they can fly on it. But we don’t rest on our laurels and continually invest to enhance our product so as to continue offering our customers the best possible in-flight experience. “Our frequent flyers will have noticed countless improvements onboard over the years, ranging from minor updates such as the addition of in-seat USB and HDMI ports, to bigger cabin overhauls where for instance we relocated the central overhead luggage bins to create more spacious cabin on the upper deck, and when we introduced bigger and better in-flight entertainment systems, amongst many other initiatives.” On the ground, Emirates had also worked closely with stakeholders to launch and operate an A380-dedicated airport concourse with 20 gates offering direct boarding from the airport lounge, and one of the world’s most advanced engineering centres which include six heavy maintenance hangars, paint shops, and the capability to completely overhaul an A380. With its inaugural A380 flight in 2008, Emirates introduced several industry firsts including …

Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has announced a multi-year distribution agreement with British Airways (BA) and Iberia Airlines (IB), enabling CWT customers to avoid the airlines’ proposed surcharge on bookings created within participating global distribution systems (GDS) that agree to these terms with IAG. The agreement, effective November 1, 2017, applies to CWT business travel and leisure clients. CWT continues to work with all key parties to provide further surcharge-free BA and IB content for its customers. “This agreement further strengthens our long-standing partnership with BA and IB and highlights our mutual commitment to the concept of new distribution capabilities (NDC) to drive improved product differentiation. While we believe GDSs provide the best technology platform available for CWT to enable best-in-market user experience and operating efficiency, we will continue to monitor and assess new technologies and capabilities,” said Brian Mogler, Senior Vice President, Global Supplier Management, CWT.” Ian Luck, Head of Distribution at British Airways, said, “We are delighted with this new agreement which will bring both immediate and longer-term benefits. We are particularly pleased with the strong undertaking CWT has made to work collaboratively with us, GDSs and other technology partners in delivering NDC content and other benefits to our customers.” In May 2017 International Airlines Group (parent company of BA and IB) announced it would add a US$10 ‘distribution technology charge’ on each airline fare component of a booking, effective November 1, 2017.

Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) will start the operations at the revamped Terminal-2 of Indira Gandhi International Airport on October 29, 2017 and GoAir will be the first airline to shift its entire operations to Terminal 2 with effect from 00:01 hours of 29th October 2017. The move has come as a mutual decision between DIAL and Go Air to shift operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 until the completion of the expansion of T1. However, it’s a temporary move to ease the pressure of fast growing traffic at Terminal 1, so that the expansion works can be carried out at Terminal 1 effectively and efficiently. The Terminal 1 is set to be expanded from the current capacity of 20 million to 40 million per annum with 22 aerobridges, and state of the art infrastructure. The expansion process will encompass all major areas of the airport i.e. Landside, Terminal and Airside and will be completed within four years. I Prabhakara Rao, CEO-DIAL said, “In view of the robust growth in passenger traffic and upcoming airport expansion works, DIAL has revamped and is recommissioning the Terminal 2 of the IGI Airport with effect from 29th October, 2017. We welcome GoAir in its new home terminal in Terminal 2. This will enable us to start the expansion works at Terminal 1 and carry it on seamlessly.” Jeh Wadia, MD, GoAir, said: “ in order to support the government and DIAL’s plans to upgrade and expand the airport facilities as well as continuously improve the customer experience and the seamless integration of international and domestic passengers, we are delighted to move into a newly furbished Terminal 2 at IGI Airport. The move …

Vistara and car rental company Avis India entered a partnership to provide a seamless car rental experience to Vistara customers. Customers booked on any Vistara flight can make their airport transfer, chauffeur-driven or self-driven car reservations at the time of booking a Vistara ticket, using the ‘Enhance My Booking’ option on the airline’s website. Members of Club Vistara (CV) will get to earn 10 CV points on every INR 100 spent on making bookings with Avis, using this option. Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara said, “It is our constant endeavour to offer our customers a seamless and superior travel experience across all touchpoints, whether it is on ground or at 35,000 feet above it. In Avis India, we find a partner that shares our passion for delighting customers with a first-rate travel experience.” Sunil Gupta, Managing Director & CEO of Avis India said, “We are committed to providing a premium and a hassle-free car rental experience to consumers across the country. Our core values of providing a safe, reliable and comfortable transportation solutions resonate with what Vistara stands for in air travel.”