Category Archives: Aviation

The Airports Authority of India has achieved another milestone in getting its staff across the country, as well as their dependants, fully vaccinated. As part of this massive initiative, the Authority claims that all the staff at the Jammu airport is now vaccinated. Since the launch of the initiative, Airports Authority of India has conducted the mass inoculation drive across several airports under its aegis.

Vistara in its industry-leading efforts to ensure the highest standards of safety on board, today operated India’s first flight with pilots and cabin crew fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The special flight UK963 on 16 June 2021 departed Delhi at 0850 Hours and arrived in Mumbai at 1110 Hours, operated by the crew that have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The crew will also be operating the return flight, UK 960, which is scheduled to depart from Mumbai at 1155 Hours and expected to reach Delhi at 1405 Hours today. Vistara plans to operate more such flights in the coming days as their number of fully vaccinated staff increases. Vinod Kannan, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara, said, “Vaccination is the best known defence against the pandemic that is helping the world get back to normalcy, subsequently aiding the recovery of the aviation industry. We have been consistently getting our staff vaccinated in our endeavour to ensure safety for them, their families and our customers whom they serve. This special flight operated by our fully vaccinated cabin crew and pilots is a sign of our continued commitment towards making ‘flying feel safe again.” The airline recently announced that it had got nearly 100% of its eligible employees vaccinated with at least their first doses. This included Vistara’s airport and corporate staff, cabin crew and pilots. Vistara continues to ramp up its efforts to ensure all eligible employees receive their second doses as well in time and are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at the earliest.

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways & Ministry of Civil Aviation have signed an MoU for the development of seaplane services in India. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the MoU between the two ministries will help in expediting the development of new water aerodromes and also operationalisation of new seaplane routes. “It gives a big fillip to the provision of a new kind of tourism,” he said.

Air travellers from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will no longer have to carry a negative RT-PCR test report when they land at the Delhi airport. Airlines have informed their passengers that no mandatory RT-PCR negative test report is required for passengers from these 3 states.

A recent IATA Air Passenger Market Analysis reveals that improvement in early bookings for June-August travel period indicate a revival of demand for the summer season. Although passengers continue to book close to the travel date, nevertheless, the improvement in two months’ forward travel bookings compared to the same period in 2019 is robust, (-72% vs -66%).

In all likelihood, the Adani Group may come out with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for its airport business that is owned Adani Enterprises as Adani Airports Holdings. The airport business may become an entity separate from the holding Adani Enterprises. Before the launch, the Group is looking to raise $500 million on a private placement basis.

According to Rajiv Subramanian, Vice President, Cleartrip, “There are very initial signs of recovery with reduced caseloads and relaxation of restrictions by several states. Traffic and booking volumes have almost doubled from a couple of weeks back. Share of round trips and advance bookings has also seen an uptick. This recovery should continue with more cities seeing reduced caseloads and accelerated vaccination.”

Malaysia Airlines has announced that it will operate limited service with 85% reduction across its network during the Movement Control Order (MCO) from 1 to 14 June 2021. However, it will continue to facilitate essential domestic and international travels as well as cargo movement. Also, the carrier extended its rebooking travel flexibility, offering customers longer ticket validity until 31 December 2022 with a one-time fare difference and service fee waiver. Eligible customers can now rebook their travels on or before 30 June 2022 for travel to be completed by 31 December 2022. Malaysia Airlines previously offered customers the flexibility to rebook their travels on or before 30 June 2021 for travel to be completed by 31 December 2021. Customers may refer to the airline’ travel advisory available on its official website for more information. Captain Izham Ismail, Group Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Aviation Group, said: “The recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Malaysia has moved us to prioritise further the safety and health of our passengers and employees. With customers being the centre of gravity, we hope the extended travel rebooking flexibility regardless of the class fare will provide the certainty and peace of mind that their tickets remain eligible for future travel with us. As national carrier, we continue to play our role in ensuring accessibility for Malaysia together with Firefly and MASwings, via limited commercial and charter services even since MCO 1.0. From April 2020, we have successfully deployed over 350 rescue and repatriation flights utilising Malaysia Airlines’ A380, A350, A330 and B737 aircraft whilst MABkargo operated more than 1,600 passenger-to-cargo (P2C) flights since March 2020, carrying over 30,000 tonnes of relief items on its global freighter network …

In its latest CAPA Advisory India Airline Outlook FY2022, the CAPA – Centre for Aviation has said that the industry is standing on the edge of a cliff. This is true even for airlines with access to large pools of capital. It said, ‘If we are to achieve the Honourable PM’s vision of affordable connectivity as a critical enabler of economic transformation, the viability of the airline sector must receive the highest level of attention and support from the Ministry of Civil Aviation’.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation, UAE has suspended all inbound passenger movement to the UAE from India until July 6, 2021. This excludes UAE nationals. Passengers are advised to reschedule their tickets for travel at a future date. Dubai’s Emirates had earlier said that passenger flights from India would remain suspended at least until June 30. The suspension of incoming passenger traffic from India to the UAE began on April 24. It was extended on May 4 by the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) in light of a deadly second wave of Covid-19 currently affecting India.