Category Archives: Aviation

Only 60% of the pre-COVID traffic is allowed to enter the country from a border control perspective, revealed a recent CAPA India report. The report states, “Although foreign business travellers and OCI holders are once again permitted to enter the country, India remains closed to leisure visitors, VFR travellers (unless they are NRIs or hold OCIs) and medical tourists. Only 60% of the pre-COVID traffic is allowed to enter the country from a border control perspective. Of which the majority is expected to defer travel given the risks and inconvenience associated with international travel at present.”

IATA has enhanced its Travel Industry Designator Service (TIDS) and will also no longer charge travel agencies to use the service. TIDS is an IATA programme which provides a unique identification code for travel agents and sales intermediaries who are not IATA-Accredited agents and are located outside of the USA.

Alliance Air, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, has appointed Harpreet Singh as Chief Executive Officer. Among her many feats, Singh was appointed as the first woman commercial pilot of Indian Airlines in 1988. With the new appointment she has become the first woman to head an Indian carrier.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, has announced that the price-cap system for domestic airlines will be extended further by another 3 months. It was earlier valid till November 24, and now it has been extended further till February 24, 2021. The ministry will relook at it in February.

A Harvard University study has revealed that air travel “is as safe as or substantially safer than routine activities people undertake during these times.” Factors such as universal use of masks, diligent cleaning protocols and advanced air filtration systems on planes combine to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission on a plane to below that at grocery stores or restaurants.

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has become the first airport in India to launch a start to end paperless e-boarding facility for international passengers. For now, the service has been made available for a few international flights of IndiGo airlines. The airport is already offering a similar facility to domestic passengers flying out of Hyderabad.

The Ship/Ferry Owners Association in Andaman & Nicobar Islands has requested the government to remove restrictions on flight movements in the region as no tourist movement has picked up despite South Andaman being open for tourism since Sept 27. The administration is currently allowing only 2 flights per day into the islands. In an appeal to home ministry and tourism minister, trade associations IATO and FHRAI have also asked to restart inter-island transport and ferries between islands.  

SpiceJet has become the first Indian airline to operate a non-stop flight between Kolkata and Chittagong. It has launched eight new flights to Bangladesh under the air bubble agreement between the two countries, adding Chittagong as its eleventh international destination. It will deploy a mix of its Boeing 737 and Bombardier Q400 aircraft on all these routes. All flights will commence from November 5, 2020.

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) has approved 60 per cent of the capacity for Indian scheduled operators as directed by MoCA. As many as 12,983 departures per week have been finalised covering 95 airports for the domestic winter schedule effective from 25 October 2020 to 27 March 2021, down by 44.3 per cent from 23,307 departures per week in winter 2019-20.

The Adani Group is all set to take over airport operations, management and development at Mangaluru by October 31, Lucknow by November 2 and Ahmedabad by November 11. MoCA has signed MoU with 3 entities of Adani Group for customs, immigration and security.