Category Archives: Aviation

Both north and south runways at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) are expected to be operational from March 25 this year. The former had been closed for rehabilitation purposes. KIA is the only Indian airport to have two parallel runways that can be operated simultaneously.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has proposed the closure of the Jammu airport for civilian traffic for 15 days from March 6 to March 20 for runway resurfacing work. On the daily basis, Jammu airport has about 20 operational flights with over 3000 travellers.  All the airlines operating their flights in the sector have stopped booking for the period.  

Etihad Airways and Gulf Air have signed a Strategic Commercial Cooperation Agreement (SCCA) including expansion of existing codeshare agreement to deepen their partnership between Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, strengthen both airlines’ network beyond the respective hubs. Also Schedule optimisation and connectivity improvements on Abu Dhabi – Bahrain route.

Virgin Atlantic has introduced unlimited free date and flight changes for new bookings as part of a series of enhancements to give further flexibility to customers and support their future travel plans. Alongside the improved changes policy, the rebooking horizon has been extended for all customers all the way until 30 April 2023, giving a broader window of time to reschedule plans if needed. The updated commercial policy enables Virgin Atlantic customers making a new booking for travel up to 30 April 2022, or those with a cancelled flight up until 31 August 2021, to make as many free-of-charge changes as necessary to their travel dates, origin or destination all the way until 30 April 2023, as well as one free name change. The changes also apply to customers who already have an open ticket with credit due to flight disruption. The cost of fare difference for all customers will be completely waived if the new travel date takes place on or before 31 May 2021 – a two-month extension on the previous policy. Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic, said, “We understand the difficulties that Covid-19 and ongoing travel restrictions may pose to our customers, so in order to support them we have revised and simplified our policies. By further increasing flexibility, customers making new travel plans will enjoy unlimited opportunities to make free changes, all the way until 30 April 2023, offering greater peace of mind and enabling them to book future travel with confidence. “We look forward to welcoming our customers back on board and when the time is right, flying them safely to their favourite destinations.” All Virgin Atlantic customers with a pre-existing booking made …

At a recent press conference, addressing the issue of travel agent commission and the reason it was discontinued post lockdown, Rajiv Bansal, CMD, Air India, said, “We are trying to move to a more web-sale oriented approach, instead of an agent-based sales model. Initially, during the Vande Bharat Mission, all tickets were sold on the website, owing to imbalance in demand and supply. Now, demand and supply are largely matched, and all forms of sale are open, including agents, on-counter and web sale. Our objective is to increase the web sales.”

AirAsia India Credit Card Policy has been changed with immediate effect. The credit card upload policy of the airline, which was in effect since 1st Feb 2021, will no longer be valid. The airline has sent a new circular which details the new policy in detail. Ajay Wadhawan, Chief of Sales, AirAsia India shared this on social media. In the previous circular

In an unprecedented airline-citizen partnership, the travel trade and the hotel industry in Jaisalmer came together and helped reinstate SpiceJet flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to the Golden City starting 12 February, 2021. Ritika Modi, Regional President, UNIGLOBE Travel South Asia and Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, MD, Suryagarh and Founder of I Love Jaisalmer, played a key role. They reached out to Shilpa Bhatia, CCO, SpiceJet, and proposed that the stakeholders share airline losses on the routes. After the agreement for the same, SpiceJet and the Government have now reinstated the flight.

Etihad Airways has become the first airline in the world with all its operating pilots and cabin crew vaccinated to help curb the spread of COVID-19 and give its passengers peace of mind. In January 2021, Etihad was awarded Diamond status for ensuring the highest standards of cleanliness and sanitisation in the inaugural ‘APEX Health Safety, powered by SimpliFlying’ audit. The airline’s vaccination initiative has consolidated Etihad’s position as an industry leader in its response to the pandemic and in keeping its employees and travellers safe. Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, said: “We proactively made the vaccine available to all our employees to not only help combat the effects of COVID-19 but to make travellers feel confident and reassured the next time they fly with us. We are the only airline in the world to make COVID-19 testing mandatory for every passenger and crew member before every flight and now, we’re the first airline in the world with 100% vaccinated crew on board. “I chose very early on to be vaccinated to demonstrate my own support of the national vaccination programme and to encourage everyone at Etihad who was eligible for the vaccine, to receive it as soon as possible. I would like to thank the entire Etihad family for everything they have done to help us reach this milestone – I am truly humbled.” This achievement was made possible through Etihad’s ‘Protected Together’ employee vaccination initiative which was formally launched in January this year. Building on the UAE’s Choose to Vaccinate campaign, Protected Together is about helping staff take proactive, personal steps towards protecting themselves against COVID-19.

Interglobe Aviation, that runs IndiGo, has paid SEBI Rs 2.10 cr under the consent mechanism of the regulator in the case of alleged violations of listing norms and lapses of corporate governance. The company however, SEBI said, has not admitted or denied any violation on its part. Indigo came under the scanner after the regulator received a complaint from Rakesh Gangwal, co-promoter of firm in 2019, alleging corporate governance lapses against his partner Rahul Bhatia.

In a recent Tweet, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, has said that “domestic aviation operations in the country are slowly reaching towards the pre-COVID numbers.” He adds, “With 2,77,235 passengers on 2,235 flights, 4,469 total movements & 5,51,506 footfalls at airports, we are almost at a touching distance.”