Category Archives: Aviation

Air India has launched a new app to its more than 18-million passengers which will take the user experience to a new level. Built on SITA’s iTravel platform, the Air India app offers the ability to book and pay for a flight by quickly and securely scanning both passport and credit card. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and MD, Air India, said, “Mobile apps are becoming an important tool for making travel bookings by passengers who are tech-savvy and like to access information on the go. This mobile app provides Air India the right tool to access a growing passenger market that is connected both in India and beyond. The new app, developed by SITA, provides an elevated mobile experience where passengers can easily manage every step of their journey on their phone or tablet no matter where they are.” Passengers can fully manage their booking from their mobile device, including selecting their seat, making changes to their itinerary, buying additional services, choosing their meal and checking in. The app has also been integrated with Air India’s Flying Returns loyalty program where passengers can securely access details of points earned or other updates to their accounts.Today more than one billion Indians use a mobile phone. Of these, more than 300 million regularly use them to access the Internet, a trend that is expected to grow by 56 per cent per year. The new mobile service will be available on Android, iOS and Windows. This means at check-in, passengers can choose to receive their boarding pass on their phone or smartwatch. At the airport, passengers will receive regular updates on their flights and can use the app for mobile boarding. Maneesh Jaikrishna, SITA’s …

To mark its 10 years in India, Air China announced the resumption of its non-stop service between Beijing and Mumbai from Oct 30, 2016. The flight Mumbai, India to Beijing, P.R.China will operate four times in a week i.e., Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Passengers will also have return flight services from Beijing, P.R. China to Mumbai, India four times a week i.e., Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. Airbus A330-300 has a seating capacity of 301 passengers which offers 30 seats in Business class, 16 seats in Premium Economy and 255 seats in Economy Class. The outbound flight will depart from Mumbai at 02:30 IST and arrive in Beijing at 11:30 CST. The return flight will depart from Beijing at 19:40 CST and will arrive next day in Mumbai at 01:00 IST. In its endeavor to build its brand and increase loyalty among travellers, the airline has launched an offer of 30 per cent discount on base fare.

Hahn Air announced that this year it has already integrated 40 new carriers into its global network of more than 300 air, rail and shuttle partners. Of the 40 new partnerships, 20 are new interline agreements with airlines that are now available on the HR-169 ticket under their own designator. Among them are Air Corsica (XK), CityJet (WX), Blue Air (0B), Jetstar Group, People’s Viennaline (PE), FlyOne (5F) and Myanmar National Airlines (UB). With its ticketing solutions, the German IATA airline facilitates global business between travel agencies and airlines. Its global infrastructure consisting of connections to all major Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and memberships in almost all Billing and Settlement Plans (BSPs) enables 95,000 travel agents worldwide to issue transportation services of Hahn Air partners on the HR-169 ticket. In addition, the Hahn Air Group welcomed 20 new partners of the consolidation service Hahn Air Systems. Under the reservation codes H1 and 5W, travel agents can book transportation services of partners that do not have a GDS presence of their own and can issue them on the HR-169 ticket. 2016 saw agreements with Borajet Airlines (YB), JetAir operated by Titan Airways (ZT), T’way Airlines (TW) and SpiceJet (SG), to name a few. “With our services, we provide the missing link in airline distribution”, says Steve Knackstedt, Vice President Airline Business Group at Hahn Air. “As it is generally not financially sustainable for an airline to be a member of all BSPs and GDSs in the world, not all travel agents are able to sell tickets of all airlines. For example, a travel agent in South America may not be able to issue a ticket of a local Asian carrier in …

Thai AirAsia is expanding its Indian network with the launch of direct flights from Bangkok to Kolkata which commences December 16 with daily flights connecting the two Asian cities. Services will depart Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport at 0005 and arrive in Kolkata at 0110. The return flights will then leave at 0210 and arrive back in the Thai capital at 0640. With this addition, Kolkata will become Thai AirAsia’s fourth Indian destination, following Chennai, Bengaluru and Kochi. AirAsia’s Malaysian unit already flies direct between Kuala Lumpur and Kolkata.

Global airlines’ body IATA has sought an abated rate of GST on flight tickets, saying the tax burden on the aviation sector was already high and the GST regime should conform to global standards and principles. Maintaining that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has been ‘working closely’ with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Secretariat here to address some issues of concern to airlines, Director General of IATA, Alexandre de Juniac said, “The GST regime needs to adhere to international standards and principles.” “We have called for a zero-rating for international flights when the GST comes into effect next April. This seems unlikely. To limit its damage to the sector’s competitiveness, we would at least hope for abatement in the rate,” de Juniac said. He said the airlines in India faced “an onerous tax burden, including the imposition of service tax to services rendered abroad, including those for overflight charges, global distribution systems and international tickets.” This, he said, was “in contravention of international principles established by governments” through the UN body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The IATA Director General and CEO, who met top officials of the government and Indian carriers during his two-day visit here, said he had shared these and other concerns with the government.

India will displace the UK as the third largest aviation market in 2026, as per the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 20-Year Air Passenger Forecast. The report expects 7.2 billion passengers to travel in 2035, nearly double of the 3.8 billion air travellers in 2016. “People want to fly. Demand for air travel over the next two decades is set to double. Enabling people and nations to trade, explore, and share the benefits of innovation and economic prosperity makes our world a better place,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. The forecast for passenger growth confirms that the biggest driver of demand will be the Asia-Pacific region. It is expected to be the source of more than half the new passengers over the next 20 years. China will ultimately displace the US as the world’s largest aviation market (defined by traffic to, from and within the country) around 2029. The prediction is based on a 3.7 per cent annual Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR).

Air Canada’s inaugural flight AC 72 from Vancouver to Delhi arrived in the national capital on October 22 morning. The seasonal, three-times weekly flight features 787-9 Dreamliner service and offers the shortest elapsed flying time from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles to the Indian subcontinent. Kevin Howlett, Senior Vice President, Regional Markets and Government Relations, Air Canada, says, “This flight is part of our three-pronged strategy into India, where the Delhi-Toronto flight launched last year was the first step, which would go daily on November 6, 2016. The new Delhi-Vancouver flight is the second major connection addressing a huge VFR and business market between both the countries. Finally, the Mumbai-Toronto flight starting from July 1, 2017, will be a major step in our expansion in India, as Mumbai is the business capital of India.”

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, has said that the civil aviation sector has the potential to create about 10 lakh direct jobs in the next 10 years. He further said that with a six-fold multiplier effect that jobs in this sector have, this can lead to the creation of about 60 lakh jobs – direct and indirect – in the next 10 years. As jobs in the civil aviation sector tend to be of high value, this would go a long way in improving the economic condition of a large number of young people. The Minister also said that the sector can reasonably be expected to grow at an average rate of about 10-12 per cent over the next ten years. However, to achieve this we first need to fill the gap between the demand for skilled manpower for a huge variety of trades in the sector, and the availability of the same. Stressing upon the need for world class training and skilling, he said that this can raise the employability of our people across the world. Sinha also flagged the issue of non-availability of land to build airports as another constraint for growth of the sector. The Minister was speaking at a workshop on Building Awareness on Aligning Skill Development in the Civil Aviation Sector with the National Skill Qualification Framework ( NSQF) in New Delhi. The event also saw the signing of an MoU between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship for training of people in the various trades associated with the civil aviation sector.

According to the latest data released by DGCA, passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Sept 2016 were 726.98 lakhs as against 590.21 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 23.17 per cent. SpiceJet showed the highest Passenger Load Factor (PLF) at 93.2 per cent. The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of Sept 2016 has been 0.42 %. Vistara came out the winner when it came to On Time Performance, with a success rate of 89.6 per cent.

SpiceJet has announced new additional flights for this winter with effect from November 15, 2016. The airline has inducted three Boeing 737-800s to operate the eight new flights and eight new connections. With the introduction of the new and additional flights, the airline will operate 334 flights a day. With ‘regional connectivity’ as the macro theme, SpiceJet has been rendering constant focus on the agenda while undertaking network expansions and has most recently introduced three new flights to Northeast. The new schedule also focuses on connecting the key metros with special emphasis on Bengaluru and Hyderabad catering to the seasonal demand. The airline has also increased its frequency for Ahmedabad to key metros besides Goa. Shilpa Bhatia, Sr. VP, Commercial, SpiceJet, says, “Our new winter schedule strikes the right balance with equal emphasis on metro and non-metro connectivity. The induction of three new aircraft will cater to the enhanced seasonal demand while offering flexibility to customers with more flight options to choose from. Besides, with the introduction of additional direct flights, the schedule will offer seamless connectivity to business and leisure travellers alike.”