Category Archives: Aviation

Continuing its strategic focus on India, SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka and a member of the oneworld airline alliance, will be adding three southern Indian cities namely, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam, to its network from July 8, 2017. The introduction of these new routes, along with the scheduled frequency increases in its Delhi and Mumbai services, will see SriLankan operating over 120 flights a week to 14 cities, thus becoming the carrier that serves the highest number of points in India. Commenting on the developments, SriLankan Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, Siva Ramachandran, stated, “India has been a vital part of our strategic expansion where we will continue to explore potential to consolidate our presence. At a time the industry observes consistently developing travel movements around tier two cities as opposed to the traditional hubs, it is timely to offer these connectivity options to our valued passengers. The new routes also reinforces our commitment to strengthen the deep commercial and bilateral ties between India and Sri Lanka.” The new routes will be serviced by Airbus 320/321 aircraft which will feature an array of bespoke services, world-class in-flight entertainment including a combination of practical timings and signature SriLankan Airlines’ hospitality services. These new routes are introduced with the aim of providing passengers with added convenience, seamless travel and easy onward connectivity from Colombo. Currently serving key Indian cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, Cochin, Madurai, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya, SriLankan will be introducing four additional frequencies to its daily services from Delhi and Mumbai in July this year.

Air India Engineering Services Limited, a subsidiary of Air India today has completed a major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for the first time of Jet Airways A330 at its Mumbai facility. A330 was a part of Air India fleet till 2014, however to perform third party maintenance check Air India trained its staff and received necessary licenses to deliver major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for Jet Airways A330. The first Jet Airways A330 aircraft VT-JWR ‘C-1’ Check was inducted on 26th April, 2017 and was handed over to the airline in a short span on 11th May, 2017. The C-1 check for A330 is done every 2 years or ten thousand flight hours whichever is early. Earlier in May, 2016, Air India also completed major ‘C’ check on Jet Airways Boeing B777 aircraft at their Mumbai facility.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that starting August 2017, Air India will operate direct flights between Colombo and Varanasi. The announcement was made during the Prime Minister’s visit to Sri Lanka to attend the International Vesak Day. The new flight would encourage Buddhists from both the countries to visit the religious sites in the respective countries. Modi said that Buddhism and its various strands are deep seated in Indian culture, politics and philosophy and invited people from Sri Lanka to come visit the land of Kashi in Varanasi.

Hahn Air Systems is introducing a new online tool, the H1 Carrier Portal, to help airline partners keep track of H1-Air reservations with the aim to ultimately improve customer service. The global consolidation service generates incremental bookings for airline partners of all sizes and business models by connecting them to all major GDSs and therefore making them available for sale via over 100,000 travel agencies worldwide under the H1 code. The Hahn Air Systems H1 Carrier Portal allows the company’s 67 partners to access clearly arranged lists of all bookings generated via the H1 code, including useful information such as date, the booking number of Hahn Air Systems or the respective carrier, the GDS PNR, origin and destination. A detailed view shows the names of all passengers booked under the Hahn Air Systems code H1, their booking classes, compartments and HR-169 ticket numbers. At the same time, the H1 Carrier Portal features a convenient search functionality that allows retrieving details of a specific booking based on the booking number or the GDS PNR. Information provided include the ticket status (valid or invalid for travel), connecting flights, special service requests such as wheelchair or pet in cabin, as well as contact details from passengers or travel agencies, if available. “We designed the H1 Carrier Portal to support the staff of our partner airlines in further optimising their passenger service”, explains Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Systems. “By having easy access to all details related to a booking, the operating carrier can inform passengers in advance in case of delays or cancellations and proactively re-organise their itinerary. At the same time, our tool helps our partners’ check-in staff to identify H1-Air …

Vistara has launched self-service kiosk check-in at Delhi’s Terminal 3, Indira Gandhi International Airport and Mumbai’s Terminal 2, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Vistara is set to launch the same service across 17 other airports that it operates from by the end of June 2017. Customers will now be able to check-in, select preferred seats and print their boarding passes for their flights at the self-service kiosks without having to queue up at check-in desks. Customers with check-in baggage can simply print their boarding passes using the kiosks and drop off their baggage at the check-in desks before proceeding to security check. The self-service kiosk check-in is also available for Singapore Airlines and SilkAir customers who are flying on Vistara-operated aircraft under code-share tickets. Vistara will soon also extend the functionality of the service to offer greater convenience of opting for ancillary products/services on the self-service check-in kiosks to its customers. Vistara continues to grow and gain accolades as it redefines air travel in India by challenging the status-quo in the Indian aviation sector by offering seamless and personalized services to its customers. In a short span of a little over two years, Vistara has grown to expand its network to 19 destinations with over 530 weekly flights and a fleet of 13 aircraft, having flown close more than 4 million happy customers already.

Air India has deployed its state-of-the-art B777 aircraft on the Delhi-Chennai-Delhi sector. Effective from May 8, the flight will fulfill the increasing demand of passengers travelling on this sector. Air India flight AI-439 departed from Delhi at 0605 hours and reached Chennai at 0845 hours. On its return leg, the AI-430 took off from Chennai at 0955 hours and reached Delhi at 1255 hours. In evening service, AI 042 will leave Delhi at 1720 hours and reach Chennai at 2005 hours. At night, AI 043 will leave Chennai at 2110 hours and will reach at 2355 hours. The 342 seater wide body aircraft offers a three-class configuration, comprising of 4 first class, 35 business class and 303 economy class seats. The aircraft is offering more capacity to meet increase in demand of holiday travellers. It will be a boon to travellers from south India who visits hill stations of north in summer season. The aircraft offers an increased space for cargo, baggage and more seating capacity for the passengers travelling on this sector.

Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister for Civil Aviation, and Jayant Sinha, Minister of State, Civil Aviation, have informed that they are revising the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on ‘Handling of unruly/disruptive passengers’. They said that the CAR is being worked on to enhance the safety and security  of passengers, crew as well as airlines. R.N. Choubey, Secretary for Civil Aviation, gave details of the draft CAR and revealed that CAR defines three levels of unruly behaviours viz. Level 1 – disruptive behaviour, Level 2 – physically abusive behaviour and Level 3 – Life- threatening behaviour. Under CAR, the Airlines will maintain a database of such passengers which will form a National  No-fly List of unruly/disruptive passengers.  Individuals identified by MHA as national security threats will also form part of the National No-Fly List. Such names will be forwarded to the individuals by the airlines indicating the reasons for inclusion of their names in the National NO-Fly List.  For passengers indicated in the National No-Fly List, airlines will have option to bar the unruly passenger from taking flights to/form/within India for a period ranging from 03 months to a maximum of two years depending upon level of unruly behaviour.  For every subsequent offence, the person will be banned for twice the period of previous ban. He also informed that CAR provides for two tiers of complaint handling mechanism in such cases, viz. initial inquiry at airlines level by an internal committee headed by a retired District & Sessions Judge and an appeal at Govt. headed by Retired Judge of a High Court of India.  The Secretary informed that other airlines as well as international airlines were free to take cognisance of No …

Air India has finally disclosed the final Scandinavian destination for its new flight from Delhi—Stockholm. Pankaj Srivastava, Director-Commercial, Air India, revealed, “As of now, it’s quite possible that we will be flying to Stockholm. Most probably, the operations for the same will start from August 15. However, there is little work left on the same, and hopefully we would be able to make an official statement for the same in the next one week.”

Etihad Airways has launched a fourth daily non-stop service between Kozhikode in Kerala and its Abu Dhabi hub offering convenient onward connections to cities worldwide. The airline is celebrating 10 years of flying to the southern Indian state with the introduction of additional flights to the destination. The extra capacity takes to 63 the total number of weekly services between Abu Dhabi and its three Kerala gateways of Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. This represents over 30 per cent of Etihad Airways’ frequencies from across 11 Indian cities it serves. In addition, strategic Indian partner Jet Airways operates seven flights a week from Kochi to Abu Dhabi. The services largely cater to the huge expatriate population from all three Kerala cities and the surrounding areas, living and working in the Gulf region. Neerja Bhatia, Etihad Airways Vice President Indian Subcontinent, said: “With our multi-frequency scheduled flights to and from Kerala, Etihad Airways has demonstrated a commitment to this vibrant state by offering convenient global access and boosting the domestic tourism industry. We have been able to bring the world closer to this beautiful state and connect the people of Kerala to destinations in the Gulf, including our Abu Dhabi home, which has also been the base for thriving ventures by Kerala business houses. Reaching a 10-year milestone is fitting tribute to the support Etihad Airways has received from the state government of Kerala in making our operations a success.” Dr Venu Vasudevan, Principal Secretary Kerala Tourism, said: “Kerala Tourism is delighted to learn of the extra flights launched by Etihad Airways, which adds more connectivity to Kerala. We congratulate Etihad Airways on a decade of flying to Kerala and look forward to conducting …

Jet Airways has expanded the scope of its popular eduJetter programme for upcoming 2017-18 academic year. The revised program will make it easier for Indian students and those from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal – holding confirmed admissions for studying at universities/ institutions in Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the USA, to commence their new academic journey. Effective this year, privileges include special baggage allowance of up to 69 kg, free SIM cards (with exclusive calling rates), and through baggage check-in up to the final destination. Participating students also receive a free ISIC Forex Card  that offers easy and safe access to foreign exchange besides enjoying a five per cent discount on JetEscapes Holidays. Jet Airways has also simplified the entire process of eduJetter application and booking, as part of widening the appeal of the programme. The new, automatic application process is user-friendly and allows students to apply in three steps – book a flight ticket, visit the EduJetter page on the Jet Airways website to fill an online request form. The student then receives  an updated ticket from the airline with applicable eduJetter benefits within 72 hours. Commenting on the programme and its enhancements, Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways said, “Jet Airways  has always endeavored to provide exceptional value to guests by way of special programmes and partnerships. EduJetter is one such initiative that offers tremendous value to the student community travelling abroad for higher education from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal, in the form of a bouquet of services that have been specially created by anticipating their needs at this significant moment in their life.”