Category Archives: Aviation

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Vistara have signed a Commercial Cooperation Framework Agreement, which is an extension of a codeshare partnership that was established in 2017. Taking it a step forward, the new agreement would allow both airlines to achieve further synergies on services between Singapore and India, as well as in the key regions of South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. JoAnn Tan, Acting Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines, said: “By bolstering our partnership, Singapore Airlines and Vistara are able to work together to provide additional options for our customers. It also reflects the importance of the Indian market to Singapore Airlines, as well as our commitment to grow our network in the coming years.” Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara said: “We are thrilled to further strengthen our partnership with Singapore Airlines. The intent is reflective of our deep-rooted commitment to providing our customers the finest and the most convenient way to fly across the world with the consistency of a five-star travel experience. This is in line with our long-term growth plan of expanding Vistara’s global presence and presenting India’s best airline to the world.”

IndiGo has said that they will make complete payment against all pending credit shells latest by 31st January, 2021. The airline has been refunding amounts owed to customers whose flights had been cancelled during the lockdown and has processed close to INR 1000cr of refunds already, which is approximately 90% of the total amount owed to the customers. Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said, “The sudden onset of Covid19 and the resulting lockdown, brought our operations to a complete halt by the end of March of this year. As our incoming cash flow dried up, we were unable to immediately process refunds for cancelled flights and had to create credit shells for the refunds that were due to our customers. However, with the resumption of operations and a steady increase in demand for air travel, our priority has been to refund the credit shell amounts in an expedited manner. We are pleased to commit that we will disburse the full 100% credit shell payments latest by January 31, 2021. We would like to thank all our customers who stood by us for their patience and understanding during this unprecedented crisis.”

With technology being essential to meet new traveller needs, Indian airports are undergoing massive digitalisation. “We are now seeing that future digital transformation initiatives are being accelerated,” says Sunil Ankalgi, Head of Sales & Account Management, Airport IT, APAC, Amadeus.

ICRA expects the profitability of the Indian aviation industry to be adversely impacted in FY2021 due to lower revenues and high fixed costs. It estimates the industry to report a significant net loss of ~Rs. 210 billion in FY2021, against a net loss of Rs. 127 billion in FY2020, with the industry debt level increasing to ~Rs 500 billion (excluding lease liabilities) over FY2021-22 and the industry requiring additional funding of Rs 350-370 billion over FY2021 to FY2023.  

In its report on reinventing regional aviation, CAPA India has recommended the government that last mile connectivity must be prioritised. “One of the shortcomings of the UDAN scheme is that last mile connectivity is often costly and not available to the level required,” the aviation consultancy said in the report.

As part of its fleet and network expansion, AirAsia India plans to add 3 more Airbus A320 neo planes by the month of June next year. The airline currently has 32 aircraft, including 2 A320 neo planes inducted recently.

According to Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, domestic air travel in India has reached 65% of what it used to be before COVID-19. He further said the numbers will rise to 80-90% over next few months with lifting of restrictions & reopening of businesses. He said that it may even reach normalcy if everything goes fine.

Air India is planning to operate non-stop flights on the Chennai-London route from January next year. In addition, the national carrier is starting first non-stop flight between Bengaluru and San Francisco; to be operated twice a week from  January 9. Further Air India will also start flying to Chicago from Delhi starting January 13.

Air New Zealand’s new Christmas video, ‘Twas the Flight Before Christmas, comes with an exciting chance for Indian agents to win exclusive Air New Zealand hampers. To celebrate the release of this video and spread some cheer this festive season here in India, Air New Zealand is giving India based agents the chance to win exclusive Air New Zealand hampers, by simply filling in a form with their contact details on the airline’s website before 4 December, 2020. Released on 20 November and shot on location at the 14th Ave Dairy in Tauranga, ‘Twas the Flight Before Christmas sees Santa Claus and Air New Zealand teaming up to surprise some lucky families in New Zealand with a plane ride and the gift of free flights to visit loved ones anywhere in Aotearoa this Christmas. Air New Zealand’s Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty says, “You have to get quite creative to deliver a campaign like this with less, and we’ve pulled out all the stops to achieve this – including bringing the ‘Sleigh320’ toy plane featured in the video out of storage to be upcycled and repurposed as a magical prop to surprise unsuspecting locals. Though this year’s video was made on a significantly smaller budget than our previous festive campaigns, the focus remains squarely on spreading Christmas cheer and magic.”

Vistara will operate special, non-stop flights between Mumbai and London Heathrow from 16 January 2021. The airline will operate these special flights thrice a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. These flights are in addition to recently-launched service between Delhi and London Heathrow as part of the ‘transport bubble’ agreement between India and the UK.