Category Archives: Aviation

The Tata Group announced the consolidation of its airlines, Vistara and Air India. With this consolidation, Air India shall be India’s leading domestic and international carrier with a combined fleet of 218 aircraft, making it India’s largest international carrier and second largest domestic carrier. 

Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, today inaugurated its first flight on the Pune-Bengaluru route. Pune is the ninth destination in Akasa Air’s network and its second city in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai. The airline is offering double daily flights on the Bengaluru–Pune route starting today with additional daily flights linking the two IT hubs, starting from December 10, 2022. Earlier in November, Akasa Air announced the addition of Visakhapatnam as the tenth destination on its network, with flights connecting the city with Bengaluru, scheduled to commence from December 10, 2022, and a second frequency on the route to be added on December 12, 2022. Since its launch in August this year, Akasa Air has been progressively scaling up its operations and by mid-December expects to cross over 450 weekly flights on a total of fourteen routes across ten cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Agartala, Pune, and Visakhapatnam. This rapid expansion of cities, routes, and frequencies is in line with the airline’s vision of adopting a phased yet rapid approach to grow its network across India. Commenting on the maiden flight and the new route, Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air, said, “Commencement of operations on this route is a momentous occasion as we expand our footprint in Maharashtra by adding Pune to our network. Both Pune and Bengaluru are important IT hubs, and enhanced connectivity on this route, backed by affordable fares, are in line with our purpose to strengthen important transportation links of our country, which will provide a boost to economic development. We will soon launch another daily flight on this route from December 10 onwards, taking daily departures from Pune …

Tourism Australia and Qantas have joined forces to extend a warm and welcoming invitation to Indian travellers as part of the recently launched Come and Say G’day campaign from the national tourism organisation. The multi-market partnership, will include a range of joint activities including a series of new co-created TVCs run on premium OTT platform Disney+Hotstar, YouTube and Meta – all designed to inspire travellers to plan and book an Australian adventure. The new co-created TVC sees Tourism Australia’s Brand Ambassador, Ruby, a souvenir kangaroo who is brought to life with CGI animation, onboard a Qantas aircraft enjoying the warm Australian hospitality offered by Qantas. Qantas Group Chief Marketing Officer Petra Perry said the partnership showcases how to plan and book trips to Australia with Qantas and encourages international visitors to discover regional centres as well as its major gateway cities. “Qantas is proud to be the airline partner for Tourism Australia’s Come and Say G’day campaign. In addition to driving inbound visitation, the campaign is building awareness that international tourists can easily travel directly to Australia and explore over 65 destinations across the country when they choose to fly with Qantas.” Tourism Australia’s South and Southeast Asia Regional General Manager, Brent Anderson, added, “Tourism Australia is proud to be partnering with Australia’s national carrier, Qantas. The partnership is designed to inspire and encourage travellers to come and say G’day and have a trip of a lifetime Down Under.” “Indian travellers have been critical to Australia’s recovery this year and with the tripling of aviation capacity on the India – Australia route, we expect continued growth in visitor numbers from India. When they travel with Qantas, they will not only receive a …

ITA Airways continues to enhance its intercontinental network to better meet the needs of travellers and will be opening its new direct flight from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi to Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome Fiumicino on December 4. The new route will be operated with an Airbus A330, three times a week, departing from New Delhi, every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 03:50 am and landing in Rome Fiumicino at 08:10 am. Return flights from Rome Fiumicino will depart every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 2:10 pm and will arrive in New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at 02:00 am, local time. With the new intercontinental connection, ITA Airways is further expanding into the Asian market, while it continues to strengthen the ability to attract connecting customers, tapping into the flows between India and North America, Germany, Spain and France. To support the new intercontinental flight from New Delhi to Rome and to enhance local awareness of the new Italian flagship carrier, ITA Airways is launching a multi-channel advertising campaign, which will highlight the New Delhi-Rome connection as well as the beauty of Italy and its most iconic destinations. The “It’s A” campaign will be live until December 13. It is developed on digital billboards in the most renowned shopping centers of the city, train stations and in all the main business and commercial areas throughout Delhi. The billboards will be also supported by a radio campaign, both in English and Hindu, on the 3 most important radio stations of the country, Mirchi, Radio One, City FM. This combination will allow ITA Airways to reach a wide range of the population mainly concentrated in urban areas, …

Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Civil Aviation, said that by December, India will have inaugurated six new airports in a span of 12 months. “Two new airports – one in Itanagar and one in Goa will be inaugurated in coming weeks,” he said. 

India’s aviation sector is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6 percent in the next 20 years, revealed Andrew Matters, Head of Policy Analysis, International Air Transport Association (IATA). “We at IATA expect Indian aviation to cater to 430 million additional air passenger journeys to and from and within India in 2040 compared to 2019,” he said.

Highlighting emerging trends, Amit Mehta, Country Manager, (South Asia), Malaysia Airlines India, says, digitalisation will be the way forward in this ‘new normal’ of air travel. “We have moved a significant portion of our processes online and accelerated our digitalisation efforts to ensure our staff can operate remotely and flexibly as a business, and for customers to enjoy our various digital and contactless offerings from the moment they purchase their tickets, check-in through to the arrival destination. Due to the acceleration of digitalisation, we expect airlines to also actively adopt next generation technologies to improve the experience of its customers.”

IndiGo has launched direct exclusive flights between Indore-Chandigarh. The inaugural ceremony was graced by the Honourable Union Minister for Civil Aviation – Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia and other eminent dignitaries from Indore.

Air India Express has started the first direct flight from Vijayawada to Sharjah. The starting price for the Vijayawada-Sharjah segment is INR 13,669, whereas the starting price for the Sharjah-Vijayawada sector is AED 399. Air India Express also flies from Vijayawada to Muscat and Kuwait in addition to Sharjah using a B737-800 NG aircraft

Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the Asia Pacific region reportedly contributes to 35% to 40% of global air traffic. He stated that the Indian economy is moving forward at a brisk pace and the civil aviation sector is likely to log around 400 million passengers over the next 7 to 10 years.