Category Archives: Aviation

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has said that pursuant to Supreme Court orders on ticket refund, 74.3% of total 55,23,940 PNRs amounting to Rs 3,200 crore have been refunded till now. Rest of the refunds are under process. 2,06,119 credit shells worth Rs 219 crore are created by airlines with consent of passengers, the Ministry said.

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled its plans to start flights from Manchester to India due to COVID situation. The were scheduled to start from January 2021 from Mumbai and Delhi. Any customer who made their bookings through a third party or travel agent, should contact the airline directly.  

IndiGo is all set to start operating its direct flight to Mumbai from the Gaya airport from December 25. The new connection would boost Jain and Buddhist tourism in the region. Already, IndiGo is operating a daily flight between Delhi and Gaya. The Mumbai-Gaya flight will be operated four days a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. There are reports of starting direct flights to Bengaluru and Kolkata from Gaya by next year. Bookings for the Mumbai flight have already started.

United Airlines has launched its new daily nonstop service between Delhi and Chicago, which will be operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. With the new route United will operate four daily nonstop flights from India. The airline additionally operates daily year-round services from Mumbai and New Delhi to New York/Newark, and from New Delhi to San Francisco. It is expected that United will introduce a new daily nonstop service between Bengaluru and San Francisco commencing starting 8th May 2021. United will be the first U.S. carrier to provide nonstop service from Bengaluru to the U.S. and will offer more nonstop services from India than any other U.S airline.

In a tweet, Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced that passengers travelling under air bubble arrangements with France, Germany & Netherlands can further travel to EU/Schengen area, South American & African countries. Travellers of bubble arrangement between India-Qatar & India-UAE can further travel to South America & Africa. Passengers travelling under Air Bubble arrangement between India & Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda & Tanzania can also travel to any country in Africa. Passengers travelling between India- Ukraine can travel to and from CIS countries, except Russia. Nepalese & Bhutanese passengers along with Indian nationals have been allowed to travel under air bubble arrangements with Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Kenya, Netherlands, Qatar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ukraine & UAE.

Tony Fernandes, CEO, AirAsia Group has confirmed that his company is reviewing its AirAsia India partnership with Tata Group. “We are in discussion with TATA group right now on whether to put money to continue business in India or expand to ASEAN. There will be some announcements soon,” he said during a CAPA Live session.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO, IndiGo while speaking at CAPA Live said the airline expects to reach 100% of its pre-COVID domestic capacity in early 2021. “We are only flying 20% of our old international capacity right now, IndiGo aims to recover to 100% of its pre-pandemic international capacity by the end of 2021,” he said.

Confirming the news about the air bubble arrangement between India and Nepal, Narayan Podayal, Delhi Station Master, Nepal Airlines, says, “The air bubble is in place and we are in planning stage regarding the flight frequency and health document requirements. The date for resumption of flight will be announced soon.” Duration of quarantine for passengers is also under discussion.

Consortium led by Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital has announced the revival of Jet Airways as a full-service carrier. The Jet 2.0 program is aimed at reviving the past glory of Jet Airways, with a fresh set of processes and systems to ensure greater efficiency. As per the resolution plan, Jet Airways intends to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart international operations. Jet Airways will be back in the skies by summer of 2021 provided it receives NCLT and regulatory approvals on time.

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.”