Category Archives: Aviation

With the beginning of this year’s cruise season on November 4, the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) began its heli-tourism initiative. While the Port had been facilitating transport services like taxi and buses for the guests, the Port Trust has also allowed heli-tourism from its premises. New Delhi-based Chipsan Aviation has deployed a six-seater helicopter to ferry tourists to various toruists places like Bekal Fort near Kasargod in neighbouring Kerala, Sringeri Sharada Peetam, Chikkamagaluru and other attractions.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently said that he is planning to connect Amritsar with the rest of the world by air. “Amritsar is not just known for the Golden Temple. It is a religious place and we have Ramtirath Temple, Duryana Temple and we have some famous churches here. This is a place which people of all religions come and seek blessings,” he said.

India is set to become the third largest aviation passenger market by 2040 with a total of 1.3 billion passengers, according to 2019 World Traffic Forecasts, released by the Airport Council International (ACI) World. China was placed at the first position with 3.5 billion passengers, followed by United States at the second spot with 2.9 billion passengers in 2040, in the report. Together, these three countries would handle almost 40 per cent of the global passenger traffic. India is also expected to be the third leading market for aircraft movements by 2040, after the US (23 per cent), China (16) with four per cent of global aircraft movements.

The government is planning to build 100 additional airports, add 1,000 new routes connecting smaller towns and establish a plane-leasing financing business by 2024 to boost the economy, according to a report. The NITI Aayog proposal was discussed during an infrastructure review meeting held recently. Increasing the strength of locally trained pilots to 600 and doubling domestic aircraft fleet to 1,200 by 2024 was also proposed. (Source: Economic Times)

AirAsia India is planning to expand its fleet size to 100 aircraft in the next five years. “We have firmed up plans to add 14-15 planes every year starting next year for the next five years. We have remained a small player in the Indian market till now with just 23 planes, which will increase to 29 planes by the end of December,” said a senior official of the airline. The airline also said that they are also looking at leasing out planes directly from lessors.  AirAsia India currently has 23 planes, which will rise to 29 by December-end. On an average, it will add 14-15 aircraft every year. It has added 326 departures in the ongoing winter schedule. The airline’s expansion plans focus on strengthening the network on existing routes rather than adding new routes. (Source: Economic Times)

Foreign airlines’ flight operations in India are going to increase by 3.05 per cent this ‘winter schedule’, which starts on October 27 and ends on March 28, 2020, according to DGCA. An official of DGCA said, “The data shows that in last year’s winter schedule, foreign airlines operated 2,262 flights per week, which would increase by 3.05 per cent to 2,331 flights per week in this year’s winter schedule.” In total, 85 foreign airlines operated to and from India during last year’s winter schedule as compared to 86 foreign carriers which would be operating in the same period this year, the official said.

IndiGo has joined IATA as a member and this announcement followed soon after the airline’s recent expansion into Vietnam, Myanmar, China and Saudi Arabia. IndiGo is currently an IOSA registered airline and IATA Clearing House member. IATA is the global trade association for the airline industry, representing over 290 airlines. This membership will help IndiGo align to global practices developed by IATA and will further strengthen the airline’s partnership portfolio.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) has launched direct service between Chennai and Tokyo. With the new service, Chennai has become the first city in South India to have the flight connectivity to the Narita International Airport, Tokyo. The Chennai-Narita connect will operate thrice a week on Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, AAI said.

The Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) airport in North Karnataka is ready and the state government is trying to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate it. The airport was earlier proposed to begin operations from November 1 but has been delayed as a lot of permission has to be sought from many departments, told Umesh Jadhav, Kalaburagi Member of Parliament.

Mumbai airport has announced its expansion of existing flight frequency to the United Kingdom with Virgin Atlantic. The added flight frequency in the BOM-LHR route that began operations from 28th October 2019 to collectively boost CSMIA’s passenger traffic by 27%. Additionally, CSMIA also inaugurated the launch of Air India’s flights to Kuwait and Columbo on 27th October 2019