Category Archives: Aviation

Air India has launched its services on two new routes — Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad and Bhopal-Raipur-Pune sectors from May 23, 2016, on its wholly owned subsidiary Alliance. The fares for Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad, as well as Bhopal-Raipur-Pune flight start from Rs 2601 one way. The new flights come as part of its Connect India programme. These services will fulfill a long standing demand of the students’ community, IT, Industrial and defence sectors. Alliance Air will operate a 72-seater ATR aircraft on these routes thus giving connectivity to smaller destinations within the country under the Government’s scheme of connecting all cities in India. Flight AI 9863 on Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad shall operate four days a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The flight will take-off from Bhopal at 0845 hrs. and reach Jabalpur at 0950 hrs. The flight will take-off from Jabalpur at 1020 hrs. for its onward journey and will reach Hyderabad at 1220 hrs. The return flight AI 9864 will take-off from Hyderabad at 1250 hrs. and will reach Jabalpur at 1450 hrs. The flight will leave Jabalpur at 1450 hrs. and will touch down at Bhopal at 1625 hrs. Alliance Air will commence another direct flight AI 9867/9868 between Bhopal and Jabalpur from June 16, 2016. The flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays thereby making the operation on this route. A daily one. The flight AI 9865 on the second route – Bhopal-Raipur-Pune – will take off from Bhopal at 0845 hrs. and reach Raipur at 1015 hrs. The flight will leave Raipur at 1045 hrs. and will reach Pune at 1300 hrs. The return flight AI 9866 will leave Pune at 1330 hrs. and reach Raipur at 1545 hrs., depart …

AirAsia Berhad will be suspending its three times weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to Goa effective June 7, 2016, as part of its route rationalisation initiative. Guests that are affected by this will be offered options to alleviate any inconvenience that might occur. They will be notified directly via their registered member email account, as well as via an SMS notification. AirAsia strongly urges all guests to keep their email addresses and mobile numbers with their country code prefix updated in their AirAsia member profiles to ensure that the airline can reach them to assist them. Spencer Lee, Head of Commercial, AirAsia Berhad, said, “We take very careful considerations for every new route that we introduce. However, this suspension is due to our route rationalisation exercise. Despite this route adjustment, we remain committed to the Indian market and look forward to return to Goa in the future.” Affected guests for this route suspension will be able to choose from three options: move flight to an earlier date before the suspension, subject to availability, full credit shell with 180 days validity or full refund.

Air India recorded a growth of 25 per cent in passenger traffic to Singapore in 2015 making it one of the top contributors in terms of absolute growth in passenger carriage between Singapore and South Asia. The growth in Air India’s passenger traffic far exceeded the overall increase in passenger traffic at Changi Airport last year, which increased to 55.4 million passengers corresponding to an increase of 2.6 per cent. Indian nationals accounted for over six per cent of Changi’s total traffic with 3.4 million Indian travellers passing through the airport in 2015. According to Changi Airport’s statement, Air India’s growth in passenger carriage on its Singapore routes in 2015, is largely spurred by an increased passenger capacity due to aircraft upgrade, as well as an expansion of routes in the last two years. Air India increased capacity on its Singapore routes last year, and now operates 42 weekly flights to the Singapore, including daily services from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Singapore is now connected to 13 Indian cities with 404 weekly flights. The statement further added that the passenger traffic between India and Singapore is set to grow, with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Silk Air’s (SIA’S subsidiary) recently increased frequencies to Cochin, Colombo, Hyderabad and Trivandrum and low-cost carrier Scoot’s entry to the Indian market from May 2016. Source: PTI

Malaysia Airlines has revamped its Business Class seats on its A330 aircraft which flies to destinations in New Zealand, Japan, Korea, China, and India. The Business Class seat comes with a 43-inch seat pitch that converts into a fully flat 76-inch bed. It comes with 90 per cent more working space, extra stowage for personal items and the majority of seats have direct aisle access due to the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2 seat layout. Each seat is equipped with a 16-inch touch screen in-flight entertainment system. Paul Simmons, Chief Commercial Officer, Malaysia Airlines, said, “The introduction of the A330 Business Class seat will make us more competitive against other full-service carriers and is part of our push to make Malaysia Airlines the preferred carrier to, from and around Malaysia. This is the start of an exciting roll-out of new, innovative and personalised products and services that we can’t wait to share with our guests.” Business Class passengers can also take advantage of Malaysia Airlines’ award winning satay stick appetizers served with delicious peanut sauce in flight or the ‘Chef-on-Call’ dining service, providing advance meal selection from 25 options consisting of Malaysian specialities, chef specials and healthy choice dishes, with advance booking.

James Hogan, who has served as Etihad Airways President and Chief Executive Officer since September 2006, has been elevated to the post of Etihad Aviation Group President and Chief Executive Officer. Under his leadership, the key Etihad Aviation Group functions will be led by James Rigney as Group Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Knight as Group Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, Ray Gammell as Group Chief People and Performance Officer, and Robert Webb as Group Chief Information and Technology Officer. These areas will provide leadership, governance and strategic direction in their expert areas across all companies in the Etihad Aviation Group. Peter Baumgartner, who was Etihad’s chief commercial officer, is now Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways, will report to James Hogan, and will oversee the day-to-day running of Etihad Airways. Baumgartner will have overall responsibility for Flight Operations, Safety and Quality, Guest Services, Aviation Security, Sales, Network Operations, Etihad Airways Marketing, Etihad Airport Services – Ground, and Etihad Airport Services – Catering. He brings with him a wealth of experience in various aspects of the aviation business. He joined Etihad Airways in April 2005 from Swiss International Air Lines and has managed the airline’s intense global commercial efforts during a period of rapid growth, both in terms of commercial expansion and the introduction of new product and service innovations.

Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair have announced additional baggage allowance for students travelling from India to Hong Kong, USA or Canada. This offer is valid for travel from May 1 till September 30, 2016, and from December 1, 2016, to January 31, 2017. Students booking a one-way or return ticket on the airlines’ websites or Mobile App before June 30, 2016, in the eligible economy and premium economy class, can avail of additional baggage allowance. They can avail of additional 10 kgs baggage allowance while travelling to Hong Kong and can carry one additional piece of 23 kgs while travelling to USA or Canada. In order to avail this offer, students will need to share a copy of their university admission letter / identity card from the university, student visa copy, passport copy and ticket copy.

Hyderabad may be the next city on Nepal Airlines’ radar, making it the fourth in India to be connected to Kathmandu after Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru. CA Janak Raj Kalakheti, Director, Commercial Department, Nepal Airlines, who led a big delegation from Nepal, revealed, “In India, we are looking at adding another city to our India network, possibly Hyderabad by September-October but it is yet to be confirmed and we are still working on it.” He added that even Kolkata shows a lot of traffic movement to Nepal and Nepal Airlines is conducting a feasibility report on it. The airline is also keen on increasing current frequencies. “We are looking to up the current 10 flights per week from New Delhi to 14 flights per week probably by July end. We are also planning to increase Mumbai and Bengaluru frequencies during the upcoming summer holidays,” Kalakheti added. The delegation visited the three cities to organise a thanksgiving ceremony for its travel agent partners which was the first such event since it started these flights in India six months ago.

The Government of India (GoI) has granted ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 14 Greenfield airports namely, Mopa in Goa; Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra; Shimoga, Gulbarga,Hassan and Bijapur in Karnataka; Kannur in Kerala; Pakyong in Sikkim; Datia/Gwalior (Cargo) in Madhya Pradesh; Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh; Karaikal in Puducherry; and Dholera in Gujarat. Further, the government has laid down Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country. However, it is up to the airlines to provide services to different regions depending on their commercial viability subject to compliance of RDG. This information was given by Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

Flybe, Europe’s regional airline, has announced the signing of its 10th codeshare partnership, this time with Star Alliance member Air India, enabling travellers using its multi-frequency Birmingham services from Belfast City, Edinburgh and Glasgow to book seamless flights onward to Delhi. Under the unilateral agreement, Air India (AI) will place its marketing code on these Flybe flights (BE). Seats will be available for booking through travel agents from 10th May 2016 with travel effective from 1st June. The partnership allows customers to use a single ticket to fly from their local airport to Delhi via a seamless connection through Birmingham Airport onto Air India’s daily flights to New Delhi. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman & Managing Director, Air India, says, “United kingdom is the residence of large number of Indian diaspora. However, this codeshare agreement will be a huge benefit not only to the Indians living in UK but also to tourists travelling to and from domestic sectors of the UK and India. Air India is continuously working towards providing seamless connectivity to its passenger across routes and with our agreement with Flybe, Air India passengers will have an unmatched connectivity in UK. ” Saad Hammad, Flybe’s CEO says, “Our new codeshare agreement with Air India is another exciting development for Flybe and tangible evidence of our continued growth. It further strengthens our commitment to connecting our regional customers with our ‘One Stop to the World’ proposition. “We can now give customers in the UK regions convenient access to the Indian subcontinent through Birmingham Airport. This relieves them of the need to undertake long road or rail journeys to and from the UK’s congested south east hub airports. It will also serve …

Etihad Airways’ Flight EY204 from Abu Dhabi landed at ChhatrapatiShivaji International Airport in Mumbai last night (on May 1) on the occasion of Maharashtra Day, the 56th anniversary of the state’s formation. Mumbai becomes the airline’s fourth A380 destination following London Heathrow, Sydney and New York, with Melbourne set to join on June 1. Etihad Airways introduced Mumbai to its A380 network with the launch of daily scheduled flights featuring its award-winning The Residence – the world’s first three-room suite on a commercial airliner. Etihad Airways senior management team led by Mohammed Al Bulooki, Vice President Commercial UAE, flew on the inaugural flight, arriving to a traditional lamp lighting ceremony attended by officials from the airline and Mumbai airport operator, GVK. Etihad Airways’ one-way fares, including taxes and surcharges, in The Residence in either direction between Abu Dhabi and Mumbai are approximately $5,000; between London and Mumbai, approximately, $26,000; and between New York and Mumbai approximately $38,000.