Category Archives: Aviation

Travelport, a global technology company that powers travel bookings for hundreds of thousands of travel suppliers worldwide, and Malaysia Airlines, the national carrier of Malaysia announced that they have reached a multi-year renewal agreement that will continue to bring Malaysia Airlines’ content to Travelport-connected customers worldwide. With the new expanded multi-source content agreement, Travelport customers will also be able to access the airlines’ future New Distribution Capability (NDC) content via Travelport+, Travelport’s next-generation travel retailing platform. Izham Ismail, Group Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airlines comments: “Travelport has continued to impress us with its technical knowledge and dedication in helping us to fulfill our business needs throughout our decades-long partnership. We are confident that Travelport+, Travelport’s next-generation travel retailing platform will be our strategic partner in achieving our future business goals. Our expanded partnership is important to our long-term transformative business plan, especially with our NDC initiative implementation.” Since Malaysia’s international borders officially reopened on April 1, 2022, flight bookings overall have increased and have shown an upward trajectory. This has rejuvenated the aviation industry that was hard hit by Covid-19. The expanded partnership between Travelport and Malaysia Airlines will ensure smooth and seamless airline content delivery to all the Travelport-connected customers and travelers across the globe. Sue Carter, Head of Air Partners Asia Pacific at Travelport, says: “With this expanded multi-year distribution agreement renewal, we are thrilled to be working even closer with Malaysia Airlines to continue to deliver our Travelport Rich Content and Branding solution which helps to further elevate the airline’s retail product offerings through our Travelport+ platform. Together, we will also be working hand in hand to embark on Malaysia Airlines’ NDC journey, jumpstarting innovations which …

ITA Airways is now available on BSP (India), and ready for sale by IATA travel agencies across India. The flag carrier of Italy will start non- stop flights from New Delhi to Rome effective 4 December 2022.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is pleased to announce the introduction of its A350-900 medium haul wide-body aircraft on the Hyderabad to Singapore sector. It will operate daily flights between Hyderabad and Singapore, with the A350 services operating every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The inaugural service SQ 523 will depart from Hyderabad International Airport at 2310 hrs on 30 October 2022. The Airline will continue to operate its B737-8 narrow-body services through the remainder of the week. Sy Yen Chen, General Manager India for Singapore Airlines, said, “We are delighted to enhance our services to Hyderabad with our wide-body A350 aircraft. This is a significant milestone for us as it reinforces our commitment to the market, more so after SilkAir’s integration with Singapore Airlines a year ago.” “In line with the company’s commitment to product and service excellence, the Airbus A350 medium haul aircraft, combined with our award-winning inflight service, will provide enhanced comfort to travellers from Hyderabad. Furthermore, the introduction of a wide-body aircraft on this sector also opens up a wider range of opportunities and capabilities for SIA Cargo,”  Chen added. Speaking about the launch of SIA’s A350-900 operations, Pradeep Panicker, CEO,GMR Hyderabad International Airport said, “Over the past few months, GMR Hyderabad International Airport has witnessed a significant growth in international passenger traffic. This is an indicator of a rebound in international travel post the pandemic. Travellers are exploring exotic destinations; there has been an uptick in the student traffic pursuing academics in international shores; business travel has resumed. The festive season has contributed to the footfall in the passenger profile of Visiting Friends and Relatives. Singapore is one of the most sought after destinations from Hyderabad. With …

As per the latest ICRA report, international passenger traffic continues to rise since the resumption of the scheduled international operations with effect from March 27, 2022. In September 2022, international passenger traffic for Indian carriers stood at 25.12 lakh, surpassing pre-Covid levels of 18.8 lakh by 34%.

India is a significant aviation market for the Asia Pacific and the rest of the world and is likely to experience strong demand for air travel, IATA said as the nation’s domestic air passenger traffic edged closer to pre-COVID levels. The Indian aviation industry, which was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, is now on the road to recovery, and airlines are ramping up employees and opening new routes to meet the growing demand for travel. IATA’s Regional VP for Asia Pacific, Philip Goh, said the Indian market is a “very important market and is already contributing massively to some parts of the world. “I can see many airline companies are starting, resuming or expanding network to India. India definitely is a key market for the region and the rest of the world,” he said.

Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air, said, “By expanding our network with an aircraft arriving every 15 days, we aim to fulfill our goal of developing a strong pan-India presence and expect to operate 300 weekly flights by October end.”

Jazeera Airways, based in Kuwait and a leading low-cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East, continues to support an expanding network of routes. Jazeera Airways currently flies to over 50destinations operating a reliable fleet of Airbus A320neo and A320ceo aircraft.  With the return of international travel during 2022, the airline is going forward with its expansion plans offering affordable travel across the Middle East, Central & South Asia, North Africa and Europe.  Jazeera has been established in the Indian market for five years and now has a strong pan-India presence with six destinations: Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kochi and Chennai. Later this year two additional routes will be added to Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore. Jazeera Airways is responding strongly also to the 2030 Vision that is driving growth in travel to Saudi Arabia. Jazeera is working closely with the Saudi Tourism Authority to support the marketing of eight routes they currently operate into the Kingdom. The growth plan constitutes of Romana Parvi, Regional Manager – South Asia engaging in showcasing knowledge about product & its offerings and exchanging business ideas by participating at various travel trade marts like TTF Ahmedabad, BLTM Delhi and OTM Mumbai. Jazeera Airways will also participate at various tradeshows in Indore, Raipur, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai and the Wedding Travel Show in Dehradun. Parvi mentioned that “The response has been positive as we’re seeing healthy load factor for forward bookings. We are continuously reviewing the opportunities in the India market and will work upon it to meet these demands.”    

Air Vistara has been officially given the rights for the air connectivity between Singapore and Pune. Sudhir Mehta, the President of the Maratha Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), tweeted “Great News. A big victory for Pune @airvistara has been formally awarded rights for Singapore – Pune. CEO Vinod Kannan shared that they are working out operational details, and schedule of flights will be announced soon.” Mehta had spoken to Vistara to increase international connectivity to Pune, and he along with Prashant Girbane, Director General of MCCIA wrote a letter to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister for Civil Aviation Government of India regarding the same. He added in the tweet, “I thank Hon. Min @JM_Scindia ji, Hon. CM @mieknathshinde ji, Hon. DCM @Dev_Fadnavis ji, Guardian Min @ChDadaPatil ji and all others who have supported our demand, & are actively helping increase Air Connectivity for Pune. Looking forward to opening up of several other routes.”

flynas, the Saudi carrier and leading low-cost airline in the Middle East, announced the launch of weekly direct flights from Riyadh and Dammam to Mumbai, starting from 20thOctober 2022. Daily direct flynas flights will connect Riyadh with Mumbai, departing from King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh back and forth, in addition to King Fahad International airport in Dammam,four direct weekly flynas flights departing on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday starting from October 31, andreservations are now open through all flynas booking channels. These routes came in light of flynas expansion strategy under the slogan launched recently under the title of “We Connect the World to the Kingdom” and after the growth achieved by the company in all its operations during the first half of 2022, in line the strategic vision of the Civil Aviation Authority aims to double the capacity and reach 330 million passengers annually, from more than 250 destinations from around world by 2030? flynas also announced the resumption of direct flights between Jeddah and Karachi starting from October 30 with three weekly flights, departing on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.In addition to the resumption of direct flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to the Egyptian city of Sohag by three weekly flights starting from October 30, departing on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday from King Abdulaziz international Airport in Jeddah, in addition to flights on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from King Khaid international Airport in Riyadh to Sohag International Airport. flynas succeeded in scaling up its fleet to 38 aircraft in June 2022 compared to 25 aircraft in January 2021, an increase of 52%. Meanwhile, the number of passengers on its flights increased to about 4 million passengers during the …

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has identified 54 new destinations for the next phase of the UDAN 5.0. It will aim to add or revive air strips closer to wildlife sanctuaries, tourist destinations or spiritual places.