Category Archives: Aviation

Starting October 3, 2017, Chandigarh airport will limit daily flight operation timings for upgrade and repairs, according to a report in The Economic Times. The report stated that the airport will stop functioning from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily. The move was opposed by airlines citing inadequate advance notice. The Federation of Indian Airlines opposed the plan and asked the Indian Air Force, which owns the airport, to shift renovation timings to night to minimise impact. Airlines had planned to increase daily flights from 74 to 84 in the winter schedule, and closure every afternoon will affect 28 flights, they said. Reduction in operation timings could lead to a 35-40 per cent drop in passengers and flights, the federation said. International and domestic passenger traffic at Chandigarh increased 42 per cent to 216,694 in June, 2017, according to the data on the Airports Authority of India website. Source: The Economic Times

Vistara has announced that it will resume its daily flight services from New Delhi to Varanasi starting October 10, 2017. In March this year, the airline had discontinued its services to the holy city in Uttar Pradesh owing to operational issues. A statement by the airline read, “Vistara is delighted to reintroduce daily non-stop flights between New Delhi and Varanasi starting October 10.” The TATA-SIA airline has also launched introductory one-way fare of Rs 1,500, without taxes, to attract customers for the route.

Airbnb has entered into a partnership with Jet Airways. This is the first Indian airline that Airbnb has signed an agreement with. With this move, Airbnb is strengthening its footprint in the Indian market and establishing a deeper connect with the new age Indian travellers who seek unique travel experiences. Promoting this partnership, Jet Airways and Airbnb are running contests on their websites as well. Amanpreet Bajaj, Country Manager – India, Airbnb said, “Airbnb’s philosophy is centered on providing unique experiences to modern day travellers, who seek newer and more interesting ways to travel. Indian travellers have become more decisive and are keen to break away from conventional means of travel and accommodation. Airbnb has been committed to building local partnerships which enable us to strengthen our connect with the Indian audience. With this partnership, Jet Airways fliers who are also Airbnb travellers will be able to enjoy the added-value they receive from being associated with two dynamic brands.” Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways said, “An increasing number of Indian travellers are embracing the fresh and highly personalised experiences that a platform like Airbnb offers. Our focus on being innovative and offering differentiated travel experiences enables us to anticipate the changing needs of our guests and recognize trends much earlier than the market, thus allowing us to offer exciting travel related initiatives. We are delighted to be the first Indian airline to partner Airbnb, and look forward to creating more of such innovative experiences for our guests.”

The government has appointed senior IAS officer Rajiv Bansal as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India for three months. Bansal, who is additional secretary and financial adviser at the petroleum ministry, will replace Ashwani Lohani-who has been appointed as the Chairman of Railway Board. A senior civil aviation ministry official reportedly said that Bansal has been appointed as Air India CMD for three months. Bansal is from the Nagaland cadre of 1988 batch and hails from Haryana. He is taking over as Air India CMD at a time when the government is working on the modalities for the disinvestment of the loss-making national carrier. He had served at the civil aviation ministry between 2006 and 2008. (Source: PTI)

The Philippines’ leading airline, Cebu Pacific has expanded its domestic route network and presence in Southeast Asia with the announcement of four new routes aimed at improving accessibility for travellers outside Metro Manila, but more so increasing connectivity within the region. Cebu Pacific announced it would begin operations of a thrice-a-week Kalibo-Clark flight (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) on October 30, 2017, linking Western Visayas, including the world-class Boracay Island, to tourists from North and Central Luzon, as well as foreigners via the Clark International Airport. The return Clark-Kalibo flight, on the other hand, begins on October 31, 2017 (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays). The carrier’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Cebgo, will boost its presence in Northern Mindanao, through the Cagayan de Oro (Laguindingan) Airport, with new inter-island connections. Starting October 20, 2017, Cebgo will fly from Cagayan de Oro to Boracay (Caticlan); and to Dumaguete three times a week. On top of these new domestic routes, Cebgo will also operate its first international route out of Zamboanga with four times weekly flights (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays) to Sandakan, Malaysia starting October 29, 2017. Cebgo is currently the only Philippine carrier with a direct service between the country and Sandakan. “Cebu Pacific is very pleased to continue being a travel enabler to every Juan as we further establish seamless connections not only within the archipelago, but to the rest of Southeast Asia. Sandakan has had centuries of trade and cultural linkage with the southern Philippines, and we are especially proud to put in place infrastructure to further enhance these ties. Now, the previous 14-hour travel by sea is cut down to just a 40-minute airplane ride,” said Alexander Lao, President and CEO, Cebgo.

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Jul 2017 were 657.21 lakhs as against 560.87 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 17.18%. The passenger load factor in the month of July 2017 has shown declining trend compared to previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season. According to the On-Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines computed for four metro airports viz. Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, IndiGo led with 84.6% followed by Go Air at 78.2%, Vistara at 74.5 % and SpiceJet at 73.4%.

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, is all set to start a new service from Tiruchi-Chennai from August 30, 2017. The 72-seater flight would take off from Chennai at 7:35 am and would reach Trichy at 8:35 am and would again leave Tiruchi at 9:05 am and land at 10:20 am in Chennai. Alliance Air will be operating ATR 600 type aircraft in the Chennai – Tiruchi – Chennai sector. Jet Airways is already operating daily services in the Chennai – Tiruchi – Chennai sector using ATR type aircrafts.

  Puducherry Airport has reopened, with SpiceJet launching its third daily flight from there under the UDAN scheme, connecting Hyderabad with Puducherry. With this new flight, Puducherry will be connected with Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Tirupati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Vijaywada and Varanasi with convenient onward connections on the SpiceJet network. SpiceJet flight SG 1004 will depart from Hyderabad at 10 am and land in Puducherry at 11:20 am. The return flight, SG 1005, will depart at 11:40 am from Puducherry and land in Hyderabad at 1:30 pm. On the occasion of the flagging-off ceremony, Shilpa Bhatia, Senior VP, Commercial SpiceJet, said, “SpiceJet is proud to induct Puducherry on to its network. Seen as an education, healthcare and tourism hotspot of the country, Puducherry is also home to several big IT software and hardware giants and has seen remarkable growth in recent years. SpiceJet is excited to contribute to this growth story and our flights will help bring in more leisure and business traffic to the UT.”

Airlines are expected to hike their baggage charges as Delhi High Court has struck down the June 10, 2016 circular of Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that capped charges for excess checked-in baggage at Rs 100 per kg for 15-20 kg on private flights. Airlines were earlier free to charge any amount as excess baggage charge beyond 20 kg but can now do so beyond 15 kg itself. SpiceJet has hiked its excess baggage pre-booking charges for domestic flyers with immediate effect. While passengers can check-in up to 15 kg without any extra charge, the airline will now charge Rs 1,425 for checking in anything between 15-20 kg, up from Rs 500 earlier. Similarly, SpiceJet’s pre-booking charges for the next slab of 20-30 kg is now Rs 2,850, up from Rs 2,000 earlier. The charges for the next slabs—30-45 kg, 45-65 kg and 65-95 kg—are now Rs 4,275, Rs 5,700 and Rs 8,550 respectively. The old charges used to be Rs 3,500, Rs 4,667 and Rs 8,000, respectively. SpiceJet passengers who do not pre-book excess baggage will have to pay Rs 300 per kg for beyond the allowed 15kg limit at airport counters. However, in Air India, economy class domestic flyers can check in up to 25 kg without any charge. “We welcome this change proposed by the Delhi High Court on the excess baggage fees. We will however evaluate this internally and see how this can be beneficial to both the guests as well as the airline, as we continue our endeavor to make flying affordable for all,” AirAsia India reportedly said in a statement. Source: Times of India

The upgraded passenger terminal building of Jammu Airport was inaugurated by Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister for Civil Aviation. Jammu Airport belongs to the Indian Air Force, Ministry of Defence and AAI maintains a Civil Enclave for civil aircraft operations. During the year 2016-17, passenger traffic movement at Jammu Airport reached 1.16 million and the passenger growth rate has touched 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2017-18. To cope with the increasing passenger growth and demand, expansion and upgradation of existing Terminal Building of Jammu Airport has been completed. The area of the terminal building is expanded from 6700 sq. mtrs. to 14,500 sq. mtrs. with an upgraded peak hour handling capacity of 720 passengers at a time, an increase from the existing 360 peak hour passengers. Also present at the occasion was Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation; Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region, PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space; Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir; Kavinder Gupta, Speaker of J&K Legislative Assembly; Shri Jugal Kishore Sharma, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Shri Shamsher Singh Manhas, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) along with Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India. The upgraded passenger Terminal Building of Jammu Airport is a glass and steel structure and is equipped with Passenger facilities and amenities like CUTE-complied Check-in Counters, Common Use Self-Service (CUSS) kiosk for check-in, central air-conditioning, two arrival conveyer belts, escalators and glass elevators, flight information display system, pa system with comfortable seating capacity.