Category Archives: Aviation

Addressing the various stakeholders present at the 7th National Tourism Investors Meet 2022, Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, stressed on collaboration between tour operators and airlines for marketing Indian destinations. She said, “The government is working to increase the number of airports in the country to 200 by 2024 from 140 airports. Aviation and tourism are complimenting sectors. Air connectivity needs to be in tandem with what the tourism sector is doing.”

Ministry of Tourism has been supporting 46 identified tourism routes under the Regional Connectivity Scheme 3.0 through the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to the Airport Authority of India, to improve connectivity and boost tourism in the country.

Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt of India stated that the government is working to increase the number of airports in the country to 200 by 2024 from the current 140 airports. She further stated that aviation and tourism are complimenting sectors. “Air connectivity needs to be in tandem with what the tourism sector is doing,” she added. 

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has stated that Indian aviation is ready for a quantum leap and become the world’s third-largest aviation market by the year 2024. It said that the Indian domestic passenger traffic has soared five times in terms of year-on-year growth in 2022. Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently held a meeting to discuss ways to mitigate the rising fuel prices.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will increase services to points across Japan and restore its Indian network to pre-pandemic levels in the coming months. The airline will also add more flights to Los Angeles and Paris by December 2022, and continue with its direct services to Vancouver. This is in response to strong demand for air travel, and will offer customers more flexibility and options in the Northern Winter operating season (30 October 2022 to 25 March 2023). Together with other adjustments to the SIA and Scoot network, the SIA Group capacity is projected to be at around 81% of pre-pandemic levels by December 2022. JoAnn Tan, Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines, said: “Japan is a key market for the SIA Group, and we will work closely with our partners to meet the demand for air travel as entry requirements gradually ease. Robust demand for travel to and from India, to points across the Group network, support an increase in our services in this important market. “By stepping up services into the Northern Winter season, we give our customers even more flight options as they make their travel plans over the next few months. The SIA Group will closely monitor the demand for air travel and adjust its services accordingly.” The Airline will progressively operate 17 weekly services to Chennai, up from the current 10 flights per week. Kochi services will go up to 14 times weekly, up from the current seven flights per week. Bengaluru services will go up to 16 times weekly, up from the current seven flights per week. SIA will operate almost 100% of its pre-Covid operating capacity to India by 30 October 2022. From 30 …

Airports Authority of India (AAI) today signed an Operation & Management agreement for operationalization of five airports owned by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for a period of 30 years. These five airports are Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Muirpur & Shravasti. The agreement was signed by Shri N V Subbarayudu, ED (SIU) on behalf of AAI and Sri Kumar Harsh, Special Secretary, Civil Aviation Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh on behalf of the State Government in presence of Shri Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Government of Uttar Pradesh. The MoU was exchanged by Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman AAI and SP Goyal Additional Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh. As per the agreement, AAI will operate and manage the airports and provide all necessary services. Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) services  will also  be provided by AAI, for which State Government will enter into a separate agreement. Further, Reserved Services will be provided by respective GoI for which GoUP shall enter separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), GoI. AAI will also be responsible for obtaining and maintaining of aerodrome license for these five airports. As per the agreement, Government of UP will complete the initial capital works for making airports ready for commercial operation and hand over all moveable and immovable assets along with relevant approvals, document to AAI for operation & management. Government of Uttar Pradesh will provide dedicated infrastructure for utilities like water, electricity and drainage connection etc. at the airport (to & within). This is the first time AAI is entering into an O&M Agreement with the State Government for Operationalization of State Government owned airports. AAI being the largest airport operator and sole air navigation service …

Ethiopian Airlines has started thrice weekly operations to/from Chennai from 2 July. Chennai has joined the vast Ethiopian network as a fourth destination in India after New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The flights to Chennai will be operated using B737-8 aircraft as per the below schedule.

Deoghar airport in Jharkhand is reported to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 12. The airport is ready to be operational as two flight run trials have been successful. When operational, the airport will be the second of international standards in Jharkhand after the Birsa Munda international airport in Ranchi and will provide air connectivity to Jharkhand, northern West Bengal, and south-eastern Bihar.

IndiGo and Turkish Airlines have resumed their codeshare flights and partnership by opening the sale earlier this month. Scheduled operations will be restarted in a phased manner with the first flight effective yesterday. The codeshare is considered as Bilateral Free Flow Codeshare wherein both the airlines will place its code on another’s flights. The agreement will enable both the carriers to provide more flexibility of choice to the customers on sectors between India and Istanbul, amongst others. In the 1st phase, both the airlines are open for sale, with Turkish Airlines as the marketing carrier, and IndiGo as the operating carrier. Turkish Airlines will be placing its code on trunk route flights operated by 6E on the Delhi-Istanbul route and later from six domestic destinations in India including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. Mr. Ronojoy Dutta, Wholetime Director and Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to resume our strategic partnership with Turkish Airlines to offer more options to our passengers. Owing to the recovery of overall aviation industry, this agreement will extend our on-time, affordable, courteous, and hassle-free travel experience by expanding the choices available to our customers for journeys beyond Istanbul, using Turkish Airlines’ extensive network through a dozen destinations covered by our agreement.” Mr. Bilal Ekşi, Chief Executive Officer Turkish Airlines, said, “After witnessing two tough years of pandemic, airline industry is now in the new period which will enable us to recover and improve partnerships. In this new era, every cooperation has become more important for each airline.  We are very happy to see that as Turkish Airlines and IndiGo, we reactivated our codeshare cooperation by resumption of our flights between Turkiye and …

According to GlobalData’s latest forecasts, on a global scale, international departures will reach 68% of pre-COVID levels in 2022. This is expected to improve to 82% in 2023, and 97% in 2024, before fully recovering by 2025 at 101% of 2019 levels.