Category Archives: Aviation

Indians planning to travel to the UK on Virgin Atlantic this summer can now make use of the new campaign by the airline, called Brexit Calculator campaign. With an exchange rate of Re. 1 to 0.012 British Pound, the campaign focuses on the bright side of Brexit and emphasises that there has never been a better time to book a trip to the UK. Virgin Atlantic offers a daily flight between Delhi and London Heathrow with return fares from Rs. 45,845. With the new campaign, Virgin Atlantic has introduced a fun ‘Brexit calculator’ application to help holidaymakers in India work out how much they could save on a trip to the UK. The calculator will compute the savings based on the pre-and post-Brexit prices and show how popular tourist attractions have become a bargain. With those savings, customers can save so much on popular tourist activities in London that it’ll cover the cost of their flight. Nick Parker, Head of India and Middle East, Virgin Atlantic Airways said, “Clearly there has never been a better time to travel to the UK. The Indian Rupee is at a record high against the Pound which means you’ll save on literally everything when you visit the UK. Britain is emerging as an increasingly popular destination for Indians traveling for their holidays, adventures, and business trips. The Brexit calculator is a fun way to explore quintessential British tourist activities, and work out how much you could save in the UK at the same time.”

Kempegowda International Airport Limited (KIAL) is going to undo the restrictions it had imposed on flight operations. For about two and a half months from mid-February, the airport was closed to flights during the day due to Aero India  2017 and later for upgradation of its sole runway. Growing traffic at the airport necessitated the expansion. Airport operations president Hari Marar said the runway upgradation, which will increase aircraft handling capacity, was completed on April 30. Travellers and airlines had to reschedule or cancel some of their trips as flights took off before 10.30 am and after 5 pm. “Approximately 80 flights were cancelled per day due to runway closure,” a KIAL official reportedly said. in 2012, the runway was entirely closed for a month for resurfacing work. The Bengaluru airport clocked 178,117 air traffic movements (ATMs) in the past financial year, which translates to around 500 ATMs a day. Ranked third busiest in India, the KIA registered 22.88 million travellers during this period. This comes to around 62,000 passengers a day. (Source: Economic Times)

SpiceJet will reportedly offer Dubai visa services to Indian passengers in association with Cozmo Travel World. It will offer services for both 14 and 30-day tourist visa based on the passengers’ requirement. “The service is available to all Indian passport holders who fulfil the eligibility conditions prescribed by the UAE Visa authorities,” the airline said in a statement. “This facility can be availed by any person visiting Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and holding valid round trip tickets of the company. The visa service is available at a competitive rate starting from Rs 5,412 per passenger.” The airline said the facility is only for ‘single entry visa’, which stands valid for 59 days from the date of issue with a stay period of 13 days (14 days’ visa) or stay period of 29 days (30 days’ visa) from the date of entry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched UDAN – the Regional Connectivity Scheme for civil aviation, from Shimla Airport. Under this scheme, flights have begun today from Shimla, Nanded and Kadapa airports. The Shimla-Delhi flight will be operated by Air India, which opened the bookings for the same on Tuesday with all-inclusive fares starting at Rs 2,036. The Prime Minister addressed the gathering at Shimla Airport, and also at Nanded and Kadapa via video link. He said that with this launch dreams of middle class will take flight. “The lives of the middle class are being transformed and their aspirations are increasing. Earlier, aviation was considered to be the domain of a select few. That has changed now,” he said.

A delegation of Belgian companies led by Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pieter De Crem, were in Mumbai recently on an economic mission to underline the importance of the newly-reinstated route between Mumbai and Brussels and the relations between India and Belgium. Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines, was also part of the delegation. On March 30, Belgian airline Brussels Airlines connected Mumbai Chhatrapati Airport to Brussels Airport five times a week with a direct flight for the first time since the route was abandoned last year. There was a high demand from various industries (pharmaceutical, diamond, maritime, industry, amongst others), from leisure travelers and cargo forwarders to reinstate a direct service. Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines, says, “India is an important economic partner for Belgium and has a large leisure potential at the same time. The demand for direct flights for passengers as well as for cargo is high. With our new service, we offer the diamond- and travel industry direct flights, which is an important investment in our network expansion, but also in the economic relations between India and Belgium.” The flight schedule consists of daytime flights to Mumbai on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The flights depart in the morning and arrive late in the evening in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Flights leave Mumbai on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and arrive in Brussels early the next morning. Speaking about how the new route can help trade, Pieter De Crem, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, says, “Belgium and India are close economic partners. Our country is the 2nd EU exporter of goods to India, just behind Germany. For Indian companies, Belgium is …

Jet Airways will add 42 weekly flights connecting three new city pairs as part of strengthening its domestic network to meet growing demand between metros and emerging cities. Introduction of additional frequencies and wide-body deployments between key metros will also boost capacity on existing sectors this summer as the airline bolsters its already extensive network to meet an expected surge in demand during the holiday season. The carrier will commence operations between Nagpur and New Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata, and Kozhikode and Bengaluru as part of its broader strategy of connecting India’s emerging tier II cities with India’s metros via direct flights. It will also introduce additional frequencies on the highly traveled Delhi – Amritsar and Mumbai – Kolkata sectors and boost capacity on the New Delhi – Bengaluru and New Delhi – Bhopal routes with the introduction of the wide-body Airbus A330 and Boeing 737 services, respectively. The changes are a part of Jet Airways’ summer schedule which will see the airline operate upto 650 flights per day connecting 65 destinations in India and abroad. Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, said, “Our summer schedule has been meticulously planned to meet the expected surge in demand over the holidays. New flights, additional frequencies, greater capacity including the introduction of wide-body services across more sectors are meant to offer our discerning guests greater choice, convenience, connectivity and added comfort.”

Etihad Airways and strategic partner Jet Airways have signed an agreement with the Government of Maharashtra to promote tourism to the western Indian state. The partnership will enable both airlines to capitalise on their links with Maharashtra and further propel domestic and international arrivals into the state capital Mumbai and beyond. It is the first time an Indian state has signed a tourism collaboration agreement with the airline sector. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis presided over the signing of the MoU in Mumbai. It followed months of discussions between the leadership of both airlines and the state government on exploring ways to work together to promote tourism‎. Under the agreement, the three entities will pool marketing resources to participate in travel-trade events in key international markets such as the UK and the UAE; jointly promote ‘Destination Maharashtra’ through advertising campaigns; and organise inbound familiarisation trips for travel agents. Collectively, the two airlines operate five flights a day between Abu Dhabi and Mumbai with domestic connections across the country. In addition, Jet Airways flies daily between Maharashtra’s second largest city of Pune and Abu Dhabi. Commenting on the association, Jaykumar Rawal, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, said, “Together, we can create benefits for travellers and shareholders. Our aim is to jointly put in place the best strategies and practices to increase Maharashtra’s marketing footprint and position it as the most preferred destination.” James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, said, “Being part of one of the world’s largest economies, Maharashtra has plenty to offer business and leisure travellers. We are therefore delighted to expand our links to promote tourism to this vibrant state, which we have been …

AirAsia Berhad’s inaugural flight AK 31 connecting Kuala Lumpur to Bhubaneswar will arrive at Biju Patnaik International Airport on the night of April 26. It is the first international airline to operate to and from Bhubaneswar. The four-times weekly flight is estimated to take off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 22:10 hours and is expected to land in Bhubaneswar at 23:25 hours on April 26. Aireen Omar, CEO, AirAsia, and Tourism Malaysia Director General will be travelling to Bhubaneswar on the flight, which will be received with a traditional water salute upon welcome. The airline has received tremendous support from the Odisha Government and Odisha Tourism in particular. The airline will connect Bhubaneswar and Odisha to 120 AirAsia destinations in the Asia Pacific covering South East Asia China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Passengers carried by Indian domestic airlines during Jan-March 2017 were 272.79 lakhs as against 230.03 lakhs during the corresponding period of 2016 thereby registering a growth of 18.59 per cent, informs the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). SpiceJet recorded the highest passenger load factor (PLF) during March 2017 at 91.4 per cent followed by GoAir at 84.8 per cent and IndiGo at 81.6 per cent. According to the data released by DGCA, domestic air passenger traffic passenger load factor in the month of Mar 2017 has declined slightly when compared to previous month, due to lean period. IndiGo recorded the highest punctuality rate at 88 per cent at four major airports of Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai followed by SpiceJet (85.7), Vistara (85.1), Go Air (81.8), Jet Airways+JetLite (80.7) and Air India (79.7).

With a fleet of about 50 aircraft globally, Oman Air is growing by 21-22 per cent Year-on-Year. “In India we have just increased our capacity by 6000 seats which includes for metropolis and Calicut in Kerala. And in Goa, the moment we see we are ready, the connectivity will be tweaked. We have a split schedule in Goa as some flights leave at night while others leave early morning,” says Ihab A Sorial, Global Senior Vice President, International Sales, Oman Air. Very soon, in about a month’s time, Oman Air will be opening up in Manchester too. Only last month they made their presence felt at Nairobi in Kenya. Sorial was in Goa to attend a conference which Oman Air conducts every quarter for India. This conference is to discuss the business strategy and how to maximise the revenue, sales and stress on the focus points. “India is very big for Oman Air and it is the third biggest point of sale in terms of revenue,” added Sorial. On a question why they not fly for USA and Australia, Mr Sorial felt that the strategy is to focus on what they have. “We do not want to stretch ourselves thinly on all the points. The Board and the senior management is of the view that to consolidate first on what we have. Then after that may be will look at other sectors. Our business is very competitive and margin of profit is very limited. We have to do careful expenditure,” said Sorial.