Category Archives: Aviation

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern as the number of cases reported a rise in more countries. As many as 43 airlines have already begun pre-emptively cancelling or reducing flights to China. The reasoning for doing so is a mix of reduced demand for visitors and fear of virus spreading. European, American, and some Asian airlines largely make up the list of those reducing service or cancelling flights to mainland China outright under the virus is under control. Beijing and Shanghai are most affected including flights to Hong Kong also facing the heat. The cancellations are extended on some airlines to as far away as the end of March. WHO said that it is expected that further international exportation of cases may appear in any country. Thus, all countries should be prepared for containment, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, contact tracing and prevention of the onward spread of the virus.

Domestic air passenger traffic grew to 14.41 crore in 2019, an increase of just 3.74 per cent compared to 2018, revealed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).  The domestic air passenger traffic grew by 18.6 per cent to 13.89 crore in 2018. The decline in growth is attributed to the collapse of Jet Airways in April 2019. The passenger load factors of all major airlines – Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo, AirAsia India and Vistara. The domestic air passenger traffic in December 2019 increased by 2.56 per cent to 1.30 crore compared to the same month in 2018. In comparison, the growth in domestic traffic in November 2019 was 11.18 per cent.

Major Indian and global airlines are witnessing a high number of flight booking cancellations to many cities of China amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak. IndiGo Cathay Pacific and British Airways have suspended flights to the mainland China. In addition,  Air India, Singapore Airlines, SpiceJet, IndiGo, AirAsia, Shandong Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific and China Eastern have waived off charges for any cancellation or flight change. Indigo has suspended flights on Delhi-Chengdu route and the Bengaluru- Hong Kong flight effective February 1 till February 20, while Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is reducing the capacity of its flights to and from mainland China by 50 per cent or more, from January 30 to the end of March 2020. Air India has announced that Reissue/ No-Show/Cancellation and Refund charges for all international tickets for travel to/from China till February 24 is waived off. Air Asia and Cathay Dragon have also extended suspension of flights to and from Wuhan and allowed credit account/refund for other mainland China bookings. Air India and Indigo have enabled the waiver of ticket change and cancellation fee on the bookings within the next one month. Shandong Airlines is also providing waiver on full refund of tickets issued for travel to/from China. Whereas, Rebooking, rerouting and refund charges on Cathay Pacific/Cathay Dragon will be waived off for all tickets issued worldwide for confirmed bookings arriving to or departing from mainland China between January 28 and March 31. IndiGo currently runs two daily direct flights to China, one is on Delhi-Chengdu route and another is on Kolkata-Guangzhou route. It will start a daily flight on Mumbai-Chengdu route from 15 March. Air India has only one direct flight to China and it …

In order to handle the increase in passenger traffic on the Tel Aviv-New Delhi sector, Air India has announced that they are doubling the frequency on the route to six flights per week from April. Air India started with three flights a week to Tel-Aviv in 2018 and would make this to six flights-a-week from April 1 this year. The announcement was made by Indian Ambassador in Israel Sanjeev Singla during the Republic Day celebrations at the Indian Embassy in Delhi recently. “Direct Air India flight connectivity between New Delhi and Tel Aviv is a game-changer in our bilateral relations reflecting the importance we attach to people-to-people linkages and connectivity. The direct flights have greatly enhanced movement of people between the two countries resulting in an increase in tourism and also facilitating the travel of the business community.” Every flight from Tel Aviv has almost 50 per cent of passengers travelling beyond Delhi to domestic destinations within India and international destinations including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Shanghai, Hongkong, Sri Lanka and Nepal, a press release issued by Air India said.

The government on Monday has invited Expression of Interest for 100 per cent stake sale in Air India (AI). Along with AI, it has also invited interest from bidders for its entire 100 per cent stake in the low-cost international arm, Air India Express and its complete 50 per cent share of ground handling subsidiary AISATS. The total debt of AI and AI Express to be taken on by the new buyer is Rs 23,286 crore. The actual debt of the two entities combined was Rs 60,074 crore. The balance of nearly ₹27,000 crores has been absorbed by the government. The last date for submitting interest to the transaction adviser is March 17 and the result is expected to be known by March 31. Ernst & Young is the transaction adviser. The bid document says that the FDI policy for the sale remains unchanged, i.e. foreign carriers will be able to own 49% stake in Air India. The substantial ownership and effective control (SOEC) clause will also be applicable and will have to remain with an Indian.

VCADomestic air passenger traffic grew to 14.41 crore in 2019, an increase of just 3.74 per cent compared to 2018, revealed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).  The domestic air passenger traffic grew by 18.6 per cent to 13.89 crore in 2018. The decline in growth is attributed to the collapse of Jet Airways in April 2019. The passenger load factors of all major airlines – Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo, AirAsia India and Vistara. The domestic air passenger traffic in December 2019 increased by 2.56 per cent to 1.30 crore compared to the same month in 2018. In comparison, the growth in domestic traffic in November 2019 was 11.18 per cent.

LOT Polish Airlines has decided to increase the number of weekly Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights from five to seven effective 14th September 2020. India-originating passengers can now further benefit from the new codeshare agreement between Star Alliance members LOT Polish Airlines and Air India, offering seamless connectivity via New Delhi’s Terminal 3 from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. On its Delhi-Warsaw route, LOT Polish Airlines features Indian meals in all three cabins (LOT Business Class, LOT Premium Economy Class, LOT Economy Class), complimentary beverages including alcoholic drinks as well as inflight entertainment system including the latest Bollywood releases in Hindi. Amit Ray, Regional Director India and DACH Markets of LOT Polish Airlines: “Our market entry in India has been a great success since the beginning. We have seen strong bookings from corporate and leisure travellers alike. We are therefore very pleased to increase our frequency.”

Chennai Airport will be the first airport in India to house five screens of PVR Cinemas. The screens will be located in the multi-level car parking complex, which is under construction. The facility is being built at a cost of ₹250 crore by the Olympia Group, and will not only have a theatre but also many options for food and beverage. The five screens would have roughly over 1,000 seats. According to officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the multi-level parking would be completed and thrown open to the public by October. It has been revealed that the facility will be constructed in such a way that it will be convenient for passengers to park their cars, shop and watch a film. The facility is coming up on either side of the Chennai Metro Rail station at a height of 27 metres. The parking facility can accommodate 2,000 cars. The theatre will be built by Olympia Group for a budget of 250 crore rupees.

Sanjay Kumar, who recently stepped down as COO of Air Asia India, will now be joining as Chief Strategy & Revenue Officer, IndiGo Airlines. Kumar was previously employed with IndiGo Airlines as Chief Commercial Officer till 2018, before his stint with Air Asia. With over 25 years of experience, Kumar has even worked with SpiceJet and erstwhile Sahara Airlines as well. The news has been confirmed by Kumar, who will reportedly be joining IndiGo very soon.

Lufthansa Group has chosen Google Cloud as a strategic partner to further improve its operational performance and minimise the impact of irregularities on its passengers. The idea is to build a platform that will suggest scenarios to return to a stable flight plan in the event of an irregularity so that passengers still arrive at their destinations as punctually and comfortably as possible. This will be done by merging data from various processes that are relevant for stable operations (for example aircraft replacement and maintenance as well as crew scheduling). “By combining Google Cloud’s technology with Lufthansa Group’s operational expertise, we are driving the digitisation of our operation even further. This will enable us to identify possible flight irregularities even earlier and implement countermeasures at an early stage,” said Detlef Kayser, Member of the Executive Board of the Lufthansa Group. For example, flights are sometimes delayed due to weather conditions such as snowfall and passengers might miss their connecting flights. In the future, it will be possible to offer faster rebooking possibilities across all four hubs for Lufthansa Group passengers thanks to systems based on artificial intelligence. “Through this collaboration, we have a significant opportunity to revolutionize the future of airline operations,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO for Google Cloud. “We’re bringing the best of Lufthansa Group and Google Cloud together to solve airlines’ biggest challenges and positively impact the travel experience of the more than 145 million passengers that fly annually with them.” A joint team of operations experts, developers and engineers from the Lufthansa Group and software engineers from Google Cloud will be developing and testing the appropriate platform. The test launch will take place in Zurich with SWISS.