Category Archives: Aviation

The Maharaja will soon come to the rescue of wait-listed passengers of Rajdhani trains. Come June, IRCTC will provide Rajdhani wait-list passengers with the option of taking an Air India flight to their destination by paying marginally extra. Air India and IRCTC have already entered into a pact for the proposed arrangement which is expected to be in place “within a week”, the carrier’s chief Ashwani Lohani told news agency PTI. Under the proposed arrangement, people who have unconfirmed tickets across classes on Rajdhani trains would have the choice of boarding an Air India flight, provided the airline has services in the particular train route chosen by the passenger. Air India tickets would be offered to such passengers through IRCTC. Lohani, who is Air India Chairman and Managing Director, said details are being worked out and the arrangement is expected to be in place “within a week”. The wait-listed passengers of AC First Class of Rajdhani trains would not have to pay any additional amount in case they decide to take an Air India flight. In the case of those booked on Rajdhani Second and Third AC classes, the passengers would have to pay up to Rs. 2,000 per ticket as additional amount for flying Air India, Lohani said. The latest move is expected to help Air India in filling up more seats on its planes amid the carrier working on ways to turnaround its fortunes. Meanwhile, Air India is chalking out ambitious expansion plan to operate more number of smaller aircraft in various states as they look to increase regional air connectivity. In this regard, Air India’s wholly-owned subsidiary Air Alliance plans to increase the number of ATRs in …

Spreading its wings to India, Scoot launches services from Singapore to Amritsar (fares starting Rs 4700) and Singapore to Chennai (fares starting Rs 5700). Scoot’s service to Amritsar commences three times weekly and will increase frequency with an additional Monday service from July, restarting the Singapore-Amritsar route for the SIA Group. The airline takes over the Singapore-Chennai daily service from Tigerair, expanding capacity to Chennai for the SIA Group with its new and spacious Boeing 787 Dreamliner as the world’s first all-787 operator. Chief Commercial Officer for Scoot and Tigerair, Leslie Thng, said, “India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world and Scoot is excited to present exceptional value, an empowering selection of customisation options including inflight connectivity and in-seat power, as well as service with Scootitude to guests flying into and out of India.” “Guests from India can now fly to amazing destinations in our Asia-Pacific network through the Singapore hub, as well as onward with Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Tigerair in the SIA Group portfolio,” he added. Scoot will also commence Singapore-Jaipur services four times weekly from October. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) , India is projected to be the world’s third largest air passenger market by 2031 with a total of 367 million passengers by 2034, an extra 266 million annual passengers compared to today.

Air India boosts regional connectivity by commencing operations to Pune via Raipur from Bhopal. Flight AI 9865 operating with a 70 seater ATR-72 will ply on the route Bhopal-Raipur-Pune. The flight will operate thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Air India offers a direct air link on this route for the first time. The flight will leave Bhopal at 0845 hrs and land at Raipur at 1015 hrs, will depart from Raipur at 1045 hrs and arrive in to Pune at 1300 hrs. The return flight AI 9866 will leave Pune at 1330 hrs and reach Raipur at 1545 hrs, depart Raipur at 1615 hrs and will touch down at Bhopal at 1745 hrs. Present on the occasion to launch the flight Minister of Home and Jail, Madhya Pradesh, Babulal Gaur, said, “We congratulate Air India for starting this flight as it will save travelling time for passengers commuting to regions like Raipur and Pune from Bhopal. The 100% occupancy on the first flight is a testimony of the demand for such flights to push regional connectivity.” At Raipur the flight was received and flagged off by Minister for Agriculture, Chhattisgarh Brij Mohan Aggarwal. The passengers arriving at Pune were greeted by the Airport Director Shri Ajay Kumar who also gave the boarding card to the first passenger to check-in for the return flight to Raipur.

Domestic airlines carried 309.35 lakh passengers during Jan-Apr 2016 as against 251.05 lakh passengers during the corresponding period of 2015 thereby registering a growth of 23.22 per cent. DGCA released the figures after analysing traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines for the month of April 2016. In terms of On-Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines Air Asia ruled the roost at 89.1 per cent with Indigo close behind at 88.5 per cent. In terms of Passenger Load Factor, SpiceJet remains ahead at 93.2 per cent in April.

Jet Airways will launch additional daily services to Dammam from Mumbai and Delhi, further boosting its operations to the key Saudi Arabian port city. The airline will introduce the new services, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, starting July 1, 2016, adding to the single daily flights it already operates on those routes and from Kochi. The fares for flights from New Delhi (DEL) to Dammam (DMM) start from Rs 19,224. The additional service from Mumbai to Dammam, Jet Airways flight 9W 506, will depart Mumbai at 0045 hrs and arrive into Dammam at 0205. The return flight to Mumbai, 9W 505, will depart Dammam at 0305 hrs and arrive in Mumbai at 0920 hrs. The service from Delhi to Dammam, Jet Airways flight 9W 518, will depart Delhi at 2230 hrs and arrive Dammam at 0010 hrs. The return flight, 9W 517, will depart Dammam at 0110 hrs and arrive in Delhi at 0730 hrs. All times listed are local. Jet Airways currently operates flights from 12 cities across India to 10 in the Gulf.

Hahn Air Systems, the global consolidation service connecting small, medium and low-cost airlines to all major GDSs worldwide has reached 50 H1-Air partners with the latest addition being low-cost carrier SpiceJet. With this new entrant, Hahn Air has nearly doubled its network of regional, low-cost airlines and tour operators since the beginning of 2015. Established in 2012, Hahn Air Systems, the sister company of airline and distribution specialist Hahn Air, offers its H1-Air product to non-GDS airlines enabling them to be booked through over 95,000 travel agencies in 190 markets. These non-GDS airlines can benefit from Hahn Air’s economies of scale and have the potential to increase their revenue streams by being able to penetrate new markets and expand their reach to even more travel agencies. The H1-Air network is an innovative distribution solution with the potential to accelerate SpiceJet’s sales by linking it to global markets. As a result, SpiceJet’s domestic and international services will be available in all GDSs and will be issuable on the Hahn Air HR-169 document. Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Systems, said “We are proud to welcome SpiceJet as the latest airline to join the H1-Air network. This is especially momentous as they are Hahn Air System’s 50th partner and we are happy to share the occasion with them. Going forward, we will redouble our efforts to grow our portfolio of H1-Air partners and to globally connect more airlines, in turn offering our travel agent partners greater possibilities.” “We are looking forward to a great association with Hahn Air Systems. We are hoping that this association will help us reach out to many more untapped markets which will ultimately result in our business …

Asiana Airlines is expanding its non-stop Incheon (Seoul) to New Delhi flight from three to five times a week starting July 3, 2016. The airline flies an Airbus 300-330 on this route with a configuration of 30 business class seats and 260 travel class seats. The flight on DEL-ICN route will operate every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, whereas the ICN-DEL  flight will be operational on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. This additional flight demonstrates both the growing market for leisure and business travelers as well as Asiana Airlines ongoing commitment to expanding connectivity between Korea and India.

Air India Express has commenced its direct services from Delhi to Dubai and Delhi-Abu Dhabi. Air India Express will operate the two direct flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi daily. New Boeing 737-800 aircraft with capacity to carry 189 passengers are being deployed. “The inaugural flight to Dubai, IX 141, took off with 166 passengers from New Delhi at 9.05 am on Sunday. The daily flight to Abu Dhabi will be effective Monday,” Air India Express said in a release. The entry of Air India’s international budget arm into Delhi is likely to intensify competition in the lucrative Gulf routes from the national capital since other Indian carriers have recently increased their frequencies. SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Airways have flights on Gulf routes, a PTI report stated. Headquartered in Kochi, Air India Express flies from 13 places across the country to as many destinations in the Middle-East and South-East Asia.

National carrier, Air India has become the first airline to launch self check-in kiosks for its domestic fliers that aims to make the check-in process expeditious. The exclusive service presently covers 26 domestic centers at Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, New Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam and Varanasi. Under this initiative, started on May 1, 2016, customers can procure the boarding pass by using the self-check-in kiosks also known as CUSS (Common Use Self Service) near the check-in area at the airport.

IndiGo launches 10 new flights within India and Oman, including first flights connecting Kochi to Muscat, and Hyderabad to Coimbatore and Nagpur. Effective May 16, 2016, IndiGo will commence an additional flight connecting Delhi to Ranchi. With effect from June 21, 2016, the airline will introduce its first flight on the Kochi-Muscat route, while also launching its second flight connecting Hyderabad to Kochi. Furthermore, effective June 22, 2016, IndiGo will begin operations with its first flight between Hyderabad and Coimbatore & Hyderabad and Nagpur. Both corporate and leisure travellers will now have the opportunity to experience the matchless on-time performance that IndiGo is synonymous with. Fares for flights: Delhi-Ranchi (2nd non-stop daily) is Rs 3834, Kochi-Muscat (first non-stop daily) flight is Rs 5999, Muscat-Kochi is Rs 6782, Hyderabad-Kochi (2nd non-stop daily) flight is Rs 3103, Hyderabad-Coimbatore (1st non-stop daily) flight is Rs 2890, Hyderabad-Nagpur (1st non-stop daily) flight is Rs 2784