Category Archives: Aviation

SpiceJet, Alliance Air, and three other airlines have emerged winner in the first round of bidding and 43 airports in India are set to get flights under the Regional Connectivity Scheme, revealed Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Civil Aviation Minister, Govt. of India. Apart from SpiceJet and Alliance Air, the other three airlines awaiting license include Air Deccan, Air Odisha and Turbo Megha. Airports Authority of India (AAI), the implementing agency, will issue Letter of Awards for 27 proposals received under RCS-UDAN. A total of 13 unserved airports will get flights under the scheme, and the total viability gap funding that the government will provide will be around Rs. 200 crore. Raju also said that the total seats on these routes will be around 13 lakh and the scheme will be active in the next 4-6 months.

Qatar Airways may order 100 new jetliners before the end of this year to power its push into India, chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker said. The Persian Gulf carrier is confident that a new aviation policy mapped out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will permit 100% foreign ownership of a domestic airline, Al Baker said Monday in London. Qatar Airways is briefing lawyers in India and will seek formally to establish the new airline soon, with a tender for aircraft to follow. “It could be this year,” the CEO told journalists after addressing the Qatar-U.K. Business and Investment Forum. “It depends how fast we can arrange our application.” Al Baker revealed last month that he planned to set up an Indian carrier with a fleet of 100 narrow-body jets, breaking into a fast-growing market where local rules previously prevented full ownership by foreign airlines. He said at the time that the Qatar Investment Authority could fund the venture, leaving Qatar Air to run it, though it’s not clear whether such an arrangement would avoid the curb. Source: Bloomberg

Government of Jharkhand, Airports Authority of India (AAI), and Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) signed a tripartite MoU for development of Deoghar Airport in Deoghar district of Jharkhand. The existing Deoghar Airport will be developed for operations of A-320 and C-130 aircraft. Signing of MoU took place in a ceremony held at the CM residence. The Govt. of Jharkhand has acquired 600.34 acres of land which will be handed over to AAI apart from the existing 53.41 acres Deoghar Airport land. DRDO, Jharkhand Govt. and AAI will provide Rs. 200 crores, Rs. 50 crores respectively to develop, operationalise and maintain the airport. The time frame given to develop and operationalise the Deoghar Airport is two years. Chief  Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das,  Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha,  Minister of Transport, Govt. of Jharkhand C.P.Singh,  MP Ram Tahal Chaudhaury and  MP Nishikant Dubey graced the occasion. Dr. Guru Prasad Mahapatra,  Chairman AAI,  Rajbala Verma, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Jharkhand, Amit Khare, Development Commissioner, Govt. of Jharkhand, Sudhir Raheja, Member Planning AAI, Sanjay Jain, RED (ER), AAI, H. S. Chaudhry, Additional Director of DRDO, Anil Vikram, Airport Director, Ranchi, senior officials of State Govt. of Jharkhand and AAI were also present on this occasion.

The Cathay Dragon website will soon be merged into the Cathay Pacific website. The merger, which will be in effect from March 29, 2017, means that customers will enjoy the convenience of being able to book flights from all departure points across the airlines’ combined network through a single website. Other functions – including booking management and online check-in services – in addition to a wealth of travel-related information, including flight timetables, flight status, baggage information and inflight entertainment options for both airlines will also be available through the enhanced website. Furthermore, four new country sites for Cathay Dragon customers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal will be made available through cathaypacific.com. The website merger is the latest development in Cathay Dragon’s rebranding process, which officially commenced in November 2016 in order to bring the airline closer to Cathay Pacific.

Air India has led the way towards increasing agents livelihood and recognising their distribution channel. Subsequent to an in-depth interaction with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and its suggestions made to the national carrier, the airline has announced a new assured incentive/PLB Scheme for the FY 2017-18. Air India will file additional commission of two per cent with BSP and the same will be deducted by agent as cut and pay as per BSP cycle. This will be apart from the normal IATA commission of one per cent. Jyoti Mayal, TAAI member Managing Committee & Chairperson (Airline Council), says, “We really appreciate Air India’s move to recognise and support each and every IATA agent. After a long time, I feel that our industry is regaining its glory. Under the leadership of CMD Ashwani Lohani, we have seen them work very closely with the travel fraternity – first by bringing in credit cards then web parity and now with a level playing field where every agent gets incentivised on selling each and every ticket on Air India. I would now urge all IATA members to support our national carrier to make it a leading carrier in Indian skies. As an Airline Council Chairperson, I would love to see our national airline regaining its glory and profitability. We at TAAI took this initiative with the airline to set standards in the industry and promote all agents.” The incentives shall be calculated on basic fare for domestic and for international it will be calculated on Basic Fare +YQ. There is no target for the scheme and will be valid for all tickets sold within the territory of India by IATA agents …

Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Ivan Chu and Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of the Lufthansa Group, signed a new co-operation agreement that will see the airline code share on flights operated by Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines to a number of destinations in Continental Europe. Reciprocally, the Lufthansa Group will codeshare on Cathay Pacific services to four of the airline’s most popular destinations in Southwest Pacific. Under the agreement, Cathay Pacific will offer 14 new destinations in Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Norway, Italy, Switzerland and Austria with the “CX” code placed on the following services operated by airlines in the Lufthansa Group. The Lufthansa Group will place its airlines’ codes on services operated by Cathay Pacific between Hong Kong and Auckland as well as between Hong Kong and Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney. Under a single booking, passengers from Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich will be able to check through and seamlessly transfer to their final destination in Auckland or Australia via Hong Kong International Airport. The agreement extends to both airlines’ frequent flyer programmes. Tickets for the new code-share destinations will be available for sale from 5 April 2017 for travel commencing from 26 April 2017.

SpiceJet has launched a daily direct Delhi-Surat-Delhi flight on March 26, as part of their summer schedule. The flight was inaugurated by Jayant Sinha, Minister of State, Civil Aviation. In an official statement, Ajay Singh, Chairman, SpiceJet, said, “SpiceJet is proud to connect Surat, one of the fastest growing cities of the country with the national capital. Our twice daily flights will offer immense flexibility to the corporate and leisure travellers on the SpiceJet network.”

Vistara has inaugurated service from Delhi to Leh and will operate direct flights between the two destinations on Saturdays and Sundays from March 25, 2017. The airline will increase the frequency to daily flights during the summer peak season, starting from May 10, 2017. Vistara celebrated the launch of this service with a traditional Ladakhi folk performance by a Ladakhi troupe in the departures area of Delhi T3, as well as with a similar performance in the arrivals area of Leh airport. Vistara also presented gifts to all passengers on the inaugural flights. Elaborating on the launch of the new destination, Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara said, “Leh is on the bucket lists of millions of travellers from all over the world, who want to experience the unique culture of this region and its incredibly beautiful landscapes. We’re very excited to add this beautiful destination to our network, and provide connectivity to its residents. We are confident that this new route will further delight our customers, who will now be able to explore the breathtaking beauty of Ladakh while ‘flying the new feeling’ with Vistara. Furthermore, with convenient same-terminal connections between domestic and international flights at Delhi Airport’s T3, our new flights will open up Leh to more foreign visitors as well.”

Emirates has introduced a new service to enable customers to use their laptops and tablet devices until just before they board their flights to the US. Emirates customers travelling to the US via Dubai will be able to utilise their laptops and tablet devices on the first part of their journeys, and also during transit in Dubai. They must then declare and hand over their laptops, tablets, and other banned electronic devices to security staff at the gate just before boarding their US-bound flight. The devices will be carefully packed into boxes, loaded into the aircraft hold, and returned to the customer at their US destination. There will not be any charge for this service. Passengers on US-bound flights starting their journeys in Dubai are encouraged to pack their electronic devices into their check-in luggage in the first instance, to avoid delays. Customers should be aware that there will be a detailed search of all hand baggage on non-stop flights to the US from Dubai. They should therefore declare their devices before the search, or ensure their electronic devices are packed into their check-in luggage in the first instance. Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “Our aim is to ensure compliance with the new rules, while minimising disruption to passenger flow and impact on customer experience. Our new complimentary service enables passengers, particularly those flying for business, to have the flexibility to use their devices until the last possible moment. Once on board they can still stay connected on their mobile phones. Our historical data shows that on Emirates’ US flights, 90% of passengers using our onboard mobile and Wi-Fi connectivity services do so via their smart phones. Only …

SpiceJet has launched its latest international route—Kolkata to Dhaka— which would fly daily. Kamal Hingorani, Senior Vice President & Head Inflight Services and Customer Experience, SpiceJet, revealed that they have started their seventh international route to Dhaka. He also said, “We are very proud about it. There is another international route — Delhi-Bangkok, which is going to start on April 14 and will be a non-stop daily flight. There is a lot more on the cards for us.”