Tony Fernandes, Group CEO, Air Asia has said that intercontinental travel is going to take a hit for a while. “It will come back. However, I think long haul hub carriers will not recover as quickly as low-cost carriers, not because we’re better, but just the market is going to change. I think people would rather jump on a plane to Phuket, or even domestically, than schlep all the way to Australia,” he said while speaking at CAPA Live event.
Read More »Mumbai to conduct all domestic & int’l flights through Terminal 2 from April 21
With effect from April 21, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) will be conducting all international as well as domestic flight operations through its Terminal 2. All passengers of GoAir, Star Air, Air Asia, TruJet and IndiGo are requested to get in touch with the respective airlines for further queries.
Read More »Air Asia India not going out of business, clarifies TAAI
In a written statement, Air Asia India has clarified with TAAI that they are not going out of business. The statement by Ankur Garg, CCO, Air Asia India, pointed out, “While the current pandemic has severely impacted the aviation sector and AirAsia India is no exception, we have remained adequately capitalized throughout these months by securing the funding from our majority shareholder as and when required.” He further said that they continue to grow their network and are already at ~55% of their pre-COVID capacity and looking to increase to 70% as per the recent relaxed capacity mandate from the government last week. They have also recently added a brand new A320 NEO to their fleet in Oct, adding a 2nd NEO in Nov and will add another 3 aircraft in as many months. Giving another evidence of the financial stability of AirAsia India, Garg reveals that they have been smoothly processing all refunds in the last few months and never forced a conversion of bookings during lockdown to “credit shells”. In the months of Sep-Oct, Air Asia leadership proactively engaged in regional meetings with travel agent partners across the entire country and addressed any questions on refunds, long term growth plans, etc. On the employee front, we have not retrenched any staff and have not done salary cuts for employees earning less than Rs 50,000 per month, and also no delay in salary pay-outs has happened for any month since the pandemic, he informed. Citing these points, Garg said that he hopes that it would dispel any doubts and provide enough confidence in the financial sustainability and growth plans of AirAsia India.
Read More »AirAsia launches ‘Chalo! India’ sales campaign to celebrate reduced e-visa fee to India
After announcing direct flights between Ahmedabad and Kuala Lumpur from April 29, 2020, AirAsia has launched the “Chalo! India” sales campaign to celebrate lower tourist e-visa fees to travel to India. This promotion will run until February 16 for travel between 29 April 2020 to 30 October 2020. Fly from Kuala Lumpur to Bhubaneswar, Cochin, Kolkata from as low as RM229 one-way, or to Jaipur, Delhi, Amritsar from as low as RM299 one-way. All promotional fares are available for booking on airasia.com or AirAsia mobile app. The campaign is offering flights from Kuala Lumpur to Bhubaneswar, Cochin, Kolkata from as low as RM229 one-way, or to Jaipur, Delhi, Amritsar from as low as RM299 one-way. All promotional fares are available for booking on airasia.com or AirAsia mobile app. On this, Benyamin Ismail, CEO, AirAsia X Malaysia said, “India has never been more affordable so there is no better time to travel. We are running some of our biggest sales yet to every India destination we fly to, including this new route from Kuala Lumpur to Ahmedabad. At the same time, the cost for the tourist e-visa fee for Malaysians is currently at its lowest. We thank the Indian government for lowering the visa fees for Malaysians to facilitate tourism growth. India is a must-see destination on many people’s travel list, and we are confident that our latest promotional campaigns and extensive flight network will stimulate travel to India and also entice more Indian travellers to visit Malaysia in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2020” Government of India had reduced the country’s e-visa fee from USD100 (1-year multiple-entry tourist e-visa) to USD10 (30-days tourist e-visa for April to June; USD25 for …
Read More »GoAir ahead of other domestic carriers with 91.8% On time Performance (OTP)
Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) released its statistics for domestic carriers in the month of May 2019, according to which GoAir scored highest in terms of On Time Performance (OTP) with 91.8 per cent, which was followed by Air Asia at 89.1 per cent and IndiGo at 87.4 per cent respectively. Vistara was at the fourth spot with 86.6 per cent and SpiceJet at fifth with 74.4 per cent OTP. Air India was at the sixth spot with 70.3 per cent. The report revealed that domestic air passenger traffic increased by 2.96 per cent in May as compared to last year, after a significant slump in April, owing to Jet Airways ceasing its operations.
Read More »India & New Zealand strengthen aviation & tourism partnership
The success of the fifth India New Zealand Business Council (INZBC) annual summit in Auckland has highlighted the strong will among both nations to take their trade and investment relationship up several notches, riding on India’s fast growing economy. Themed on Aviation, Tourism and Technology, the one-day summit heard substantively from some of the most successful business people and policy influencers in these sectors both from India and New Zealand and from New Zealand’s Members of Parliament across the main political parties. In a video message from New Delhi, Suresh Prabhu, India’s Minister for Commerce, Industry and Civil Aviation, welcomed the summit and invited New Zealand businesses to join India’s unfolding growth story tipped to go from $5 trillion to $10 trillion in the next 15 years.While trade agreements were touched upon, presenters were emphatic and unanimous in their opinion that strengthening better air links – especially direct flights – between the two countries was key to not only boosting tourism numbers but also growing the education sector, trade and investment exponentially. “Growth in Indian tourist numbers into New Zealand has been encouraging over the past few years but the potential was great,” said Suresh Nair, General Manager, Air Asia—India. “Air Asia had developed expertise in creating and marketing new tourist destinations with robust and frequent air links in Asia and India, working with the hospitality industry. New Zealand could similarly tailor its own destinations to suit preferences of the growing and increasingly mobile Indian tourist industry,” he said.
Read More »Air Asia to fly to Kolkata, Ranchi
Air Asia India will now be flying to Kolkata and Ranchi. The airline added these two new destinations and will be making Kolkata its third hub after Bengaluru and Delhi. With the new additions, Air Asia India will now be flying to a total of 15 destinations in the country. The airline acquired its 9th A320 aircraft this year, after which it launched these connections.
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