Category Archives: Aviation

`In its latest analysis on the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry, CAPA India has said that the government and industry will need to collaborate to rethink and redesign aviation sector to emerge from the crisis and move towards a sustainable future. The report explains, “The current crisis should be used to initiate structural changes for the long-term viability of the sector. The industry will need to make some hard choices. Airlines will need to restructure their businesses to become leaner and reduce costs, whilst also increasing the strategic deployment of technology and analytics to enhance revenue and improve efficiency.”

With more than two decades of experience in aviation industry, Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy & Revenue Officer, IndiGo, has a different take on what luxury would mean in terms of air travel. “We believe that any product which is safe, reliable, on time, and affordable is luxury. If we can scratch even a two to three per cent of the total domestic market, and make air travel a part of their journey that would be great. Right now, these travellers are taking their own transportation, or trains, or buses. But if we can create an ecosystem for them which is cost-effective and efficient, that can help them travel the way they want to travel, then I think that can be called luxury too. Traveling by air itself is luxury. They have graduated from ground to air and if you have a network aligned to that in every state or tourist point, it makes for a great opportunity,” Kumar says, adding that Indigo has 63 destinations across the network of which 25-30 destinations have been launched in the last two years.

Turkey’s national flag carrier performed one of the most significant flights on April 23, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Grand National Assembly, and National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. The TC-JJF registered Boeing 777-300 (ER) type aircraft, which arrived in Ankara in the morning for this special flight, took off from Esenboğa Airport on April 23 at 09:40, local time. Representing the date 23 April 1920, flight TK1920 lasted approximately two hours and followed a route in which the crescent and star symbols in the Turkish flag were drawn. After the flight, which was followed by many through the live air traffic site Flightradar24 that provides flight tracking data, a crescent-star route emerged and passed into Turkish aviation history. Captain Öner Samyel and First Officer Murat Gülkanat, who made this meaningful flight that left its mark in the heavens, made a special announcement in the sky above the Assembly building itself, which was opened 100 years ago. In the announcement referring to the statement of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the nation“, it was emphasized that Turkish Airlines ensured that his legacy lived on in the skies. Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, M. İlker Aycı said “The inauguration day of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, founded a hundred years ago to represent the will of a nation which went its founder Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as “April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day”, reflecting the confidence in the next generation in the safekeeping of these sacred values. As our country’s national flag carrier, we dedicate today’s exclusive flight to our children, the guardians of our future.”

Turkey’s national flag carrier operated an important flight on April 23, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Grand National Assembly, and National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. The TC-JJF registered Boeing 777-300 (ER) type aircraft, which arrived in Ankara in the morning for this special flight, took off from Esenboğa Airport on April 23 at 09:40, local time. Representing the date 23 April 1920, flight TK1920 lasted approximately two hours and followed a route in which the crescent and star symbols in the Turkish flag were drawn. After the flight, which was followed by many through the live air traffic site Flightradar24, a crescent-star route emerged and passed into Turkish aviation history. Captain Öner Samyel and First Officer Murat Gülkanat, who made this flight, made a special announcement in the sky above the Assembly building, which was opened 100 years ago. In the announcement referring to the statement of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the nation,” Turkish Airlines ensured that his legacy lived on in the skies. Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, M. İlker Aycı said “The inauguration day of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, founded a hundred years ago to represent the will of a nation which went great lengths to ensure its freedom and independence, was gifted to our children by its founder Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as “April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day”, reflecting the confidence in the next generation in the safekeeping of these sacred values. As our country’s national flag carrier, we dedicate today’s exclusive flight to our children, the guardians of our future.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its latest estimation based on a scenario of severe travel restrictions lasting for three months, with a gradual lifting of restrictions in domestic markets, followed by regional and intercontinental predicted that the Indian aviation sector among the Asia Pacific countries would be the worst hit as close to 29.32 lakh jobs are likely to be at risk in the sector during 2020. The report also said that the revenue of the sector in India may fall by $11,221 million this year compared to 2019. Further, passenger demand is likely to fall by 47 per cent in the country. Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Asia-Pacific, said that airlines in the region face a liquidity crisis with a $61 billion cash burn in the second quarter of 2020.

The government has extended the deadline to submit the bid documents for Air India by two months to 30th June looking at the ongoing nationwide lockdown. This is the second time the government extended the deadline to submit bids for Air India. It had earlier extended the deadline to 30 April from 17 March. The government in January invited preliminary bids to divest its entire stake in Air India, and the airline’s subsidiary Air India Express along with its joint venture Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited. The successful bidder for Air India will be required to absorb ₹23,286.5 crores of debt after the government transfers Rs63,113 crore of debt from Air India and subsidiary Air India Express ahead of the national carrier’s proposed divestment.

Boutique advisory and analytics firm VIDEC has launched a Global Travel Staffing Barometer, an online resource to monitor the impact of COVID-19 coronavirus on the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The free-to-use tracker offers industry insights on the state of terminations, furloughs and pay-cuts, across industry categories and countries, collated from various sources and updated on daily basis. Virendra Jain, Cofounder and CEO, VIDEC, says, “The travel industry is crumbling before our eyes with more than half a million lay-offs in less than a month. Amid the global spread of the pandemic, companies of all shapes and sizes – from the billion-dollar valued to start-ups – are trimming costs, disbanding, and letting go off their most precious asset, the workforce. The Global Travel Staffing Barometer quantifies the discharged staff and aims to become the central hub for tracking the loss of human resources, and in time offer the first glimpses for the road to recovery for the travel industry.” According to this tracker, more than 500,000 workers in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries have been furloughed in the last three weeks.

Struggling Air Mauritius has entered voluntary administration after the board resolved that with the coronavirus grounding it would not be able to meet its financial obligations in the foreseeable future. Air Mauritius had already embarked on a transformation programme in January this year under which it was reviewing its business model in a bid to secure sustainability. Air Mauritius has become the second airline to enter administration proceedings in as many days voluntarily. Yesterday Australian carrier Virgin Australia also entered voluntary administration caused by the current crisis. In a company statement the airline’s board of directors state that while “substantial progress” was made in developing its action plan, the closure of borders and halting of air services because of the coronavirus has led to a “complete erosion of the company’s revenue base”. Air Mauritius was forced to suspend flights at the start of April because of the coronavirus restrictions. The airline’s board came to a decision following “a complete erosion of the company’s revenue base.”  In its letter, the airline stated that its entire revenue base had been eroded. The erosion has been caused by a decrease in demand tied to many different travel bans enacted by separate national governments. The airline believes that demand will not begin to return until the end of 2020. “There is uncertainty as to when international air traffic will resume and all indications tend to show that normal activities will not pick up until late 2020,” the airline says.    

As initiated and facilitated by the Government of Srilanka, SriLankan Airlines, brought back 829 Sri Lankans who were stranded in India. They have been arriving in the country, as Sri Lanka was going into 48-hour quarantine curfew, since Friday , March 20,to Sunday 22nd 2020. The Airline wishes to state that these passengers had travelled to India on other airlines and were stranded there as the carriers concerned stopped operations to Colombo due to travel restrictions. The National Carrier took every measure to bring them home swiftly and safely, given that these passengers mainly consisted of senior citizens, an age group that has been advised to take extra precautions to be safe from the virus. Ever since the global outbreak, SriLankan Airlines has been playing a pivotal role in facilitating passage home to many Sri Lankans, which includes the mercy flight that was operated to Wuhan. The Airlines’ operational areas have been fully functional despite the government declared holidays and ‘work-from-home’ , and the staff members have been attending to their work dedicatedly and diligently, understanding fully the role that they are expected to play during these difficult times. SriLankan Airlines, going above and beyond the call of duty and not aiming at any commercial fulfillment despite the irretrievable impact this has made on business, has continued to step in and fulfil what is expected of the National Carrier, thus playing its part of staying united as a country in this crucial hour. Our Global Contact Center(0197331979), including Airport ticket office offering 24×7 service to our valuable customers for their ticket related services.

Three big trade bodies got on a joint call recently with MoCA along with five Indian and international airlines to discuss travel agent woes and underline urgent issues specially the deposits put in by agents into the low-cost airlines, which effectively is the agent’s advance. On call were representatives of Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Travel Agents Association Of India (TAAI) speaking with Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary of Aviation, MoCA. The airlines that were part of the call included representatives of Indigo, SpiceJet, Vistara, GoAir, AirAsia. Kharola gave both parties a platform to present their urgent issues. Consequent to the discussion, he strongly requested the airlines to look into the issues presented by the agents, and to revert within a short span of time with a solution. MoCA has also requested the airlines to come back within in 24 hours on the agent money in Float accounts as advance to be refunded in cash of group deposits and cancellations. MoCA also requested the airlines to co-operate. Rajat Bagaria, Joint Secretary, TAFI National, who was part of the call says, “We had already started booking seats from April 15 onwards as they were very urgent cases like people wanting to return home. One client’s father had passed away in Kolkata so he had to take the first flight out even though he could not attend the funeral. There are so many reasons why people have to go back including maternity issues.”