Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Airlines and passengers are on guard against a new flu-like virus that originated in Wuhan, China. Many airlines, including Korean Air Lines, Singapore Airlines’ budget carrier Scoot, Taiwan’s China Airlines and Japan’s ANA, announced they were cancelling flights in and out of Wuhan after authorities announced a lockdown. South Korean budget carrier T’way Air earlier this week postponed the scheduled launch of a new route to the city. On Thursday, 184 flights to/from Wuhan, or 60% of the departures listed for the day, had been cancelled.

From the US, the highest number of bookings happen in September and October, accounting for 21% of all bookings. Even in January there is a peak of 10% from US. From United Kingdom there are 2 periods of peak bookings— January, which accounts for 12% of booking volume and the period September to November, which accounts for 29% of booking volume. Both USA, UK have two peak periods, reveals an analysis of time of actual 2019 inbound bookings data to India by Forwardkeys, from 3 important long-haul source markets – USA, UK and Australia. Australia, being in the Southern Hemisphere has one peak booking peak period – July August September which account 32% of all bookings.

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.

According to the data released by South African Tourism office in India, Mumbai continued to be the leading source market for South Africa in India. Between January to June 2019, around 43% of total Indian visitors to the Rainbow Nation were from Mumbai. Delhi managed to be the second leading source market for the destination in India contributing 21% of the total Indian visitors during the same period. One thing remained common for both cities – the summer and winter holiday months of April, May and December emerged as preferred travel months among Mumbaikars as well as Delhiites for their South Africa trips. With 81,316 Indian arrivals as of October 2019, the destination board shared a positive outlook for the Indian market, noting that as of September 2019, total spends by Indian travellers in South Africa had reached a four-year high. The average length of stay witnessed a year on year increase of 8% in the first half of 2019.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during the period January- December 2019 were 1,08,95,305 as compared to 1,05,57,976 in January- December 2018 registering a growth of 3.2%, reveals recently released statistics by Ministry of Tourism. FTAs in December 2019 were 12,25,672 as compared to 11,91,948 in December 2018 registering a growth of 2.9%.

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.”

Travel Nevada will host a webinar for travel agents on 24th January. For registration and more details on the event, please contact, Ritesh Ahluwalia at ritesh.ahluwalia@buzzindia.in or +91 9818576755. Over 500 agents from across India are expected to participate. Through this, agents will learn about the key highlights of the destination and will be educated on what makes Nevada an ideal destination for Indian tourists.

VFS Global is increasing its manpower and visa handling capacity by 40 per cent across its centres in South Asia region ahead of the peak season rush. Sharing the news, Sanjeet Joher, Head- South Asia, VFS Global, said that they are working to enhance the visa appointment system as well, apart from extra operational hours. “We are increasing the size of our team to provide better services to our customers. We want to ensure that they have a seamless experience when they visit VFS with the help of our customer relationship managers across our centres. In our efforts to educate the trade about our services and initiatives, we will organise more training sessions and roadshows with travel agents. We also want to debunk myths around visa application and procedures,” he said.

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.

The Incredible India Tourist Facilitator Certification (IITFC), which was rolled out on January 1, 2020, already has 3200 enrolments, reveals Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General (ADG), Ministry of Tourism (MOT), Government of India. She said, “The programme started off really well and there has already been a growing interest of people in joining the programme. Currently, there are about 3200 people who have enrolled for the programme.”