Category Archives: Aviation

AirAsia India is planning to expand its fleet size to 100 aircraft in the next five years. “We have firmed up plans to add 14-15 planes every year starting next year for the next five years. We have remained a small player in the Indian market till now with just 23 planes, which will increase to 29 planes by the end of December,” said a senior official of the airline. The airline also said that they are also looking at leasing out planes directly from lessors.  AirAsia India currently has 23 planes, which will rise to 29 by December-end. On an average, it will add 14-15 aircraft every year. It has added 326 departures in the ongoing winter schedule. The airline’s expansion plans focus on strengthening the network on existing routes rather than adding new routes. (Source: Economic Times)

Foreign airlines’ flight operations in India are going to increase by 3.05 per cent this ‘winter schedule’, which starts on October 27 and ends on March 28, 2020, according to DGCA. An official of DGCA said, “The data shows that in last year’s winter schedule, foreign airlines operated 2,262 flights per week, which would increase by 3.05 per cent to 2,331 flights per week in this year’s winter schedule.” In total, 85 foreign airlines operated to and from India during last year’s winter schedule as compared to 86 foreign carriers which would be operating in the same period this year, the official said.

IndiGo has joined IATA as a member and this announcement followed soon after the airline’s recent expansion into Vietnam, Myanmar, China and Saudi Arabia. IndiGo is currently an IOSA registered airline and IATA Clearing House member. IATA is the global trade association for the airline industry, representing over 290 airlines. This membership will help IndiGo align to global practices developed by IATA and will further strengthen the airline’s partnership portfolio.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) has launched direct service between Chennai and Tokyo. With the new service, Chennai has become the first city in South India to have the flight connectivity to the Narita International Airport, Tokyo. The Chennai-Narita connect will operate thrice a week on Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, AAI said.

The Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) airport in North Karnataka is ready and the state government is trying to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate it. The airport was earlier proposed to begin operations from November 1 but has been delayed as a lot of permission has to be sought from many departments, told Umesh Jadhav, Kalaburagi Member of Parliament.

Mumbai airport has announced its expansion of existing flight frequency to the United Kingdom with Virgin Atlantic. The added flight frequency in the BOM-LHR route that began operations from 28th October 2019 to collectively boost CSMIA’s passenger traffic by 27%. Additionally, CSMIA also inaugurated the launch of Air India’s flights to Kuwait and Columbo on 27th October 2019

The Hahn Air Group has announced the launch of a new company—Hahn Air Technologies, which will provide distribution services to airlines that are looking to expand their indirect ticket sales. It will also be an innovation centre and think tank for the Hahn Air Group by exploring and developing the potential of new distribution channels such as NDC, blockchain-based providers and mobile solutions. In fact, the first product of Hahn Air Technologies is X1-Air, which when used by airlines that have limited or no indirect distribution connectivity, can immediately make their flights available in various sales channels. Aside from interfaces with major GDS, such as Amadeus and Sabre and soon Travelport, the service package of Hahn Air Technologies and X1-Air includes scheduling, fare filing, messaging, inventory management as well as booking, ticketing and settlement. More GDSs will be added to the service in the near future. The first partner airlines to use the services of Hahn Air Technologies are Air Panama (7P) from Panama, ASL Airline France (5O) from France, Azur Air Ukraine (QU) from Ukraine, Jam Airlink Express (J0) from Jamaica, Mayair (5G) from Mexico, Ulendo Airlink (W4) from Malawi, Westair Aviation (WV) from Namibia and Wildcat Touring (WC) from the United States. “Our products complete any airline’s distribution strategy. X1-Air allows low-cost airlines to outsource their complete indirect distribution in a simple, risk free and cost-efficient manner. For regional airlines we provide easy access to a truly global distribution network of over 100,000 travel agencies in 190 markets. For all airlines which only have direct distribution channels, X1-Air is the perfect first step to enter indirect distribution”, says Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Technologies,” says Proschka.

In a recent announcement, Ethiopian Airlines has revealed it will be flying four times a week on Addis Ababa-Bengaluru route, making the tech hub its third destination in India after Mumbai and New Delhi to have direct connectivity. The flight will operate on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday on Boeing 737-800 and the flight duration will be of 6 hours and 30 minutes. The flight will take off at 23:00 hours (GMT+3) and will land at Bengaluru airport at 8 am local time.

Senior IAS officer Arvind Singh has been appointed as the chairman of Airports Authority of India and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu will head the National Highways Authority of India as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre. Singh is at present working in his cadre-state Maharashtra. He has been appointed as the chief of AAI in the rank and pay of additional secretary, an order issued by the personnel ministry said.

IndiGo reports net loss of INR 10,620 million and EBITDAR of INR 2,564 million for the quarter ended September 2019. Mark-to-market losses on capitalised operating leases of INR 4,282 million and higher maintenance cost of INR 3,190 million significantly impacted profitability. The Company’s CEO, Ronojoy Dutta said, “In a historically weak quarter, we registered a negative profit before tax margin of 12.7% compared to 16% margin loss registered in the same quarter last year. While our revenue performance was much better during the quarter, the losses were accentuated by forex losses on operating lease liabilities created under IND AS 116, and re-assessment of accrual estimates for future maintenance cost. We remain focused on our growth plans and are expanding both domestically and internationally. We added 7 new domestic destinations and 6 new international destinations this past quarter and are looking to further grow our network profitably.”