Category Archives: Aviation

Ethiopian Airlines and TravoCure Healthcare, the medical travel division and a subsidiary of Akbar Group of Companies headquartered in India, announced their recent Medical Tourism Partnership in order to facilitate services for passengers traveling from Africa to India for medical reasons. This will see both parties conduct joint promotional activities to highlight India as a medical tourism destination for its modern medical technologies at internationally accredited hospitals and clinics. One of the sectors expanding globally at great pace is the medical tourism industry. Recognized as a trusted provider in this industry, Akbar Travels’ main focus through TravoCure Healthcare has always been to offer a plethora of support services in medical and wellness travel to patients anywhere in the world through the 7000 support staff employed in their vast network of over 200 offices across India including those at airport counters. Therefore, with its latest collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines, passengers traveling to India from Africa for medical reasons will receive discounts for feasible medical treatment through the Akbar Travels Group. This step is to further the company’s mission to offer high-quality healthcare to for lower costs. Ethiopian Airlines is among the first to initiate a step in providing more convenience and discounted air fares to its medical travelers. Being the first ever Airline to actively participate towards the future success of the medical tourism industry offering a more seamless travel experience for medical travelers, the airline will also be providing better travel packages to medical tourists at affordable costs. Thus, travelers who were once in a dilemma to visit a destination can now confirm their plans, as they can manage their expenditure and costs while managing a convenient tour. Tigist Eshetu, …

Airbus Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Executive Vice-President, Christian Scherer said, “India is the largest market in the world for our flagship commercial product, the Airbus A320, and on average we will deliver to India more than one aircraft every week for the next ten years.”

DGCA approves 21,941 departures per week from 105 airports in India under winter schedule, which is 13.3 per cent fewer flights from the summer schedule 2022 (25,309 flights) and 1.55 per cent fewer weekly flights than the 22,287 flights that were run during the last winter schedule.

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.”