Category Archives: Aviation

Following in the footsteps of Air India, Jet Airways will also relocate its domestic operations to the Terminal 2 at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) from March 15, 2016. This will lead to the integration of domestic and international flight operations at one terminal. Flight 9W 484 from Mumbai to Kolkata departing at 02:25 hrs will be the first Jet Airways domestic flight to operate from T2 on March 15, 2016. The first arriving flight will be 9W 628 at 00:10 hrs from Kolkata. Gaurang Shetty, Sr. Vice President – Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “The integration of domestic and international operations at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 will enable Jet Airways to transform Mumbai into a critical international transit hub.”

Starting April 1, Thai Airways will operate additional daylight flight TG324-TG323, on the Delhi-Bangkok route, increasing frequency to 19 flights a week from 18 flights previously. The price for this flight starts from Rs 12,437++. The new day flight will offer greater options to passengers travelling to Australia and Auckland. The late night flight, TG316 will operate with aircraft type 773 offering capacity of 34 seats in Business and 330 seats in economy, early morning flight TG332 will operate with aircraft type 787 offering capacity of 24 seats in business and 240 seats in Economy and day light flight TG 324 will operate with 777-200 offering capacity of 30 seats in business and 279 seats in Economy.  Total capacity per week will be 5941 seats from Delhi. THAI is currently operating from 6 cities in India i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Banglaore offering 52 flights a week. The airline also operates seasonal flights from Gaya and Varanasi between October-March. “It is our endeavour to ensure that our passengers enjoy a comfortable and happy journey on Thai, we are constantly working to improve our service as per changing demands and customer’s expectations, from upgrading aircrafts to world class ground services at Suvarnbhumi airport, changing F&B options as per service route requirements, entertainment and shopping on board; convenience of web purchase and online services, THAI is dedicated to customer satisfaction,” said Viset Sontichai, Director Thai Airways for India Subcontinent.

IndiGo has launched three new daily non-stop flights on the Delhi–Dehradun route, and will further connect Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad as a one stop flight. Fares for Delhi to Dehradun flight is Rs 1,126, while Mumbai to Dehradun via Delhi would cost Rs 4,069, Bengaluru to Dehradun via Delhi fare is Rs 5,078, Hyderabad to Dehradun via Delhi is Rs 4,253. Dehradun is not IndiGo’s 35th domestic and 40th overall destination. The airport at Dehradun, the state capital of Uttrakhand, also serves as the gateway to nearby cities of Mussoorie, Haridwar and Rishikesh. The airline has also connected Chennai to Bengaluru and Kolkata to Jaipur with its third flight, while also commencing additional daily non-stop flights between Kolkata and Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram & Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. In addition, IndiGo will also connect Jaipur to Hyderabad with the launch of its second daily non-stop flight, with effect from March 15, 2016. Fares for Chennai to Bengaluru flight is Rs 1,674, Kolkata to Delhi Rs 4,036, Hyderabad to Chennai Rs 2,129, and Delhi to Chennai Rs 3,633.

With effect from March 21, 2016, Jet Airways will launch a new daily flight between Delhi and Muscat, Oman, at fares starting Rs 15, 782. The addition of this new flight from the airline’s strategic hub in Delhi will further strengthen the airline’s growing international network and enhance flight connectivity from Northern India, SAARC and ASEAN and to the Gulf region. India and Oman are linked by historical maritime trade linkages and the important role of the Indian expatriate community in the development of Oman. With the launch of the new flight, Jet Airways will operate a total of four daily flights between India and Muscat. This includes flights from Mumbai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Gaurang Shetty, Senior Vice-President, Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “It is indeed a proud moment for us at Jet Airways to launch our maiden international flight between Delhi and Muscat. This is a significant milestone for enhancing the strong ties between India and the Sultanate of Oman. With the launch of this flight, Jet Airways guests from Northern India, SAARC and ASEAN regions will have the option of travelling to Oman via Delhi.” The airline will deploy a Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these new services, offering Premiere and Economy guests an in-flight product that is among the best in its class, warm service, as well as delectable cuisine and convenient schedules.

Expressing disatisfaction over the Budget ’16, Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, International Air Transport Association (IATA), said, “The budget had a minimal focus on aviation. We hope the government will do a better job with the National Civil Aviation Policy. While the NCAP is a step in the right direction, there are areas of concern, especially where it adds costs to the industry or where it deviates from well-established global standards. We hope the government will address three priority areas – retract the 2 per cent Regional Connectivity Fund levy, abandon the plan to auction traffic rights, and allow AERA to perform its functions independently by not enshrining any ‘Till’ for airport charges in the Policy document.”

Reacting to the Budget, Jayant Nadkarni, President, Business Aircraft Operators Association, said, Developing new airports is always good. But we already have many airports without much connectivity. For operations to commence, we need clarity on funding, taxation, duties, and incentives. These are yet to come together for the small aircraft sector in business aviation and in scheduled commuter flights to remote areas. The potential for growth clearly exists.

Jet Airways and Korean Air have entered into a codeshare agreement and a reciprocal frequent flyer programme. The partnership would allow guests travelling on both Jet Airways and Korean Air to connect from multiple points in India to Seoul over various gateway points in Asia. Under the codeshare arrangement, Jet Airways will place its marketing code on Korean Air operated non-stop flight between Incheon, Seoul and Mumbai, as well as flights between Incheon, Seoul and Bangkok and Singapore. Likewise, Korean Air will place its marketing code on Jet Airways’ operations between Singapore and Mumbai and between Bangkok and Mumbai and Delhi.

Jet Airways is expanding its operations to Bangkok with the launch of new daily flights from its hubs in Mumbai and Delhi. With the introduction of these new frequencies, the airline becomes the largest Indian airline flying between India and Bangkok. With effect from March 27, 2016, Jet Airways will launch a third daily frequency from Mumbai to Bangkok, making it the airline with the maximum number of daily frequencies between the two cities. Jet Airways will also launch a second daily service from Delhi to Bangkok from March 27, 2016, offering greater choice to guests travelling between the two capital cities. Gaurang Shetty, Senior Vice President – Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways is delighted to introduce additional frequencies from Mumbai and Delhi to Bangkok providing greater choice and convenience to our guests on these popular routes. Bangkok has been a popular destination for business and leisure travellers and demand on routes from India to Bangkok continues to grow. By adding more capacity to this key destination from our hubs in Mumbai and Delhi we aim to provide easy connectivity with convenient schedules linking to our wider domestic network.” Jet Airways will deploy Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the new services, offering Premiere and Economy guests, a best in class in-flight product, warm service, and award-winning in-flight entertainment and cuisine.

IndiGo has added additional flights on its Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Chandigarh routes to enable those stranded due to ongoing protests in Haryana to travel between the two cities. The airline operate two additional flights from Delhi to Chandigarh on February 23. On February 22, the airline operated two flights on Delhi-Chandigarh and two flights on Delhi-Jaipur routes respectively. These supplementary flights will allow stranded passengers to travel between these cities, as rail transport is not fully operational and roads have been blocked by protestors.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has announced the launch of direct daily flights ex-Mumbai to Narita on its new Boeing 787 with effect from March 27, 2016. Till now, it was only servicing New Delhi to Narita flights. On the new route, the Dreamliner will have flat beds, 46 staggered seats in business class, 21 in premium economy and 102 seats in normal economy class. This will make ANA the only airline to operate direct flights to Japan with business class seating. The airline has also announced introductory fares as well as special fares for the travel agents.