Tag Archives: Air India

Air India has deployed its state-of-the-art B777 aircraft on the Delhi-Chennai-Delhi sector. Effective from May 8, the flight will fulfill the increasing demand of passengers travelling on this sector. Air India flight AI-439 departed from Delhi at 0605 hours and reached Chennai at 0845 hours. On its return leg, the AI-430 took off from Chennai at 0955 hours and reached Delhi at 1255 hours. In evening service, AI 042 will leave Delhi at 1720 hours and reach Chennai at 2005 hours. At night, AI 043 will leave Chennai at 2110 hours and will reach at 2355 hours. The 342 seater wide body aircraft offers a three-class configuration, comprising of 4 first class, 35 business class and 303 economy class seats. The aircraft is offering more capacity to meet increase in demand of holiday travellers. It will be a boon to travellers from south India who visits hill stations of north in summer season. The aircraft offers an increased space for cargo, baggage and more seating capacity for the passengers travelling on this sector.

Air India has finally disclosed the final Scandinavian destination for its new flight from Delhi—Stockholm. Pankaj Srivastava, Director-Commercial, Air India, revealed, “As of now, it’s quite possible that we will be flying to Stockholm. Most probably, the operations for the same will start from August 15. However, there is little work left on the same, and hopefully we would be able to make an official statement for the same in the next one week.”

India has been participating at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) since its inception 24 years ago and this year is no different. Speaking at a media briefing held at ATM 2017, HE Vipul, Consul General of India, Dubai said, “We have 54 participants in total from India who are here at ATM including goverment agencies like IRCTC, ITDC, as well as a number of private tour operators. Two state governments Jammu & Kashmir and Kerala have put up stalls while officials from Madhya Pradesh are also participating. The theme this year is yoga and wellness and Dubai particularly has embraced yoga in a big way. There has been a consistent and positive growth from this region to India over the last 3 years with 2016 having registered an overall growth of around 17 per cent over the previous year. India is today the biggest source of tourist arrivals in UAE with the numbers increasing every year and with the simplification in e-Tourist Visa and introduction of e-business and e-medical visa, we expect more tourists to travel to India.” Gyan Bhushan, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, highlighted the country’s growing tourism figures, and said, “India registered a growth of 10.6 per cent in 2016, which is higher than the global average of about 4.3 per cent. It is an all round destination and offers diversity throughout the year since we have the Himalayas, the desert, beaches, plains and much more. Our focus on health & medical tourism, wellness, cruise tourism, among others has grown as well since these are booming sectors.” Saket Saran, Country Head, Air India, reiterated the fact that traffic has been strong between Dubai and India and said, “The …

After recent incidents of unruly behaviour with its employees on board, Air India might put in place new rules, which might have steep fines up to Rs. 15 lakhs. The airline, reportedly is planning to impose a fine of Rs 5 lakh for delaying a flight up to an hour; Rs 10 lakh for delay of 1-2 hours and as much as Rs 15 lakh for delay over two hours. According to official, a plan to curb such behaviour has been drafted and awaiting approval from Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India.

Air India will operate a non-stop flight from Delhi to Washington from July 7th, 2017, to connect the capitals of India and the USA. This will be the only direct flight connecting Delhi with Washington with a B777-200LR aircraft. Washington will be Air India’s fifth non-stop destination in USA after New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), Chicago (ORD) and San Francisco (SFO). AI 103 will depart from Delhi at 0115 hrs (IST) to reach Washington at 0715 hrs (GMT). While AI 104 will depart from Washington at 1100 hrs (GMT) and will land at IGI airport, Delhi at 1030 +1 hrs (IST). Operating thrice a week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, the flight will offer a 3-cabin configuration, with 8 seats in First Class, 35 seats in Business Class and 195 seats in Economy Class. The direct flight will take around 15 hours and 30mins to reach Washington from Delhi. Passengers looking to travel and experience the world class facilities with a non-stop Boeing 777 flight can start booking their tickets now through www.airindia.in or through Air India booking offices.

Air India has led the way towards increasing agents livelihood and recognising their distribution channel. Subsequent to an in-depth interaction with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and its suggestions made to the national carrier, the airline has announced a new assured incentive/PLB Scheme for the FY 2017-18. Air India will file additional commission of two per cent with BSP and the same will be deducted by agent as cut and pay as per BSP cycle. This will be apart from the normal IATA commission of one per cent. Jyoti Mayal, TAAI member Managing Committee & Chairperson (Airline Council), says, “We really appreciate Air India’s move to recognise and support each and every IATA agent. After a long time, I feel that our industry is regaining its glory. Under the leadership of CMD Ashwani Lohani, we have seen them work very closely with the travel fraternity – first by bringing in credit cards then web parity and now with a level playing field where every agent gets incentivised on selling each and every ticket on Air India. I would now urge all IATA members to support our national carrier to make it a leading carrier in Indian skies. As an Airline Council Chairperson, I would love to see our national airline regaining its glory and profitability. We at TAAI took this initiative with the airline to set standards in the industry and promote all agents.” The incentives shall be calculated on basic fare for domestic and for international it will be calculated on Basic Fare +YQ. There is no target for the scheme and will be valid for all tickets sold within the territory of India by IATA agents …

Air India (AI) has announced that the Indian national carrier will commence flights between India and Israel by May this year. The airline is planning to open the New Delhi-Tel Aviv route with three weekly flights. Commenting on the commencement of the new flight, Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, reportedly said, “Air India is looking forward to the opening of the direct route to Israel in a few months’ time. I believe that this will have a positive effect on the tourism traffic between our two countries.” Yariv Levin, Minister of Tourism-Israel, reportedly said, “Air India Chairman Lohani was deeply impressed with his visit to Israel and, in his own words, is convinced that the many Indian tourists who will visit Israel will find it an exceptional tourism destination. There is no doubt that the opening of the route, combined with our marketing efforts in India, will generate a significant increase in incoming tourism from India.”

Air India scripted history by flying an all-women crew flight around the world. The flight AI 173 that took off from IGI Airport in Delhi on Feb 27 to San Francisco covering a distance of around 15300 km in 15 and a half hours over the Pacific route and on the return journey from San Francisco over the Atlantic. The flight was in the safe hands of Capt. Sunita Narula, Capt. Kshamta Bajpai, Capt. Indira Singh and Capt. Gunjan Aggarwal. The all-women cabin crew was led by Seema Baberwal and Nishrin Bandulwala. The entire flight was operated by the women staff of eight departments. These departments included Cockpit crew, Cabin crew, Check-In staff, Doctor, Customer Care Staff, ATC and the entire ground handling from operator to technician, Engineer and flight dispatcher and trimmer. Line operation safety audit was done by Harpreet A De Singh, ED Flight Safety, Air India. This is the first time that this audit was done by a female officer for around the world trip.

Air India has become the latest A320neo operator after taking delivery of the first of 14 aircraft leased from Kuwait headquartered ALAFCO Aviation Lease And Finance Company, becoming the first CFM powered NEO operator in India. The delivery is also the first NEO for ALAFCO from an order for 85 A320neo Family. The A320neo will join Air India’s existing fleet of 66 A320 Family aircraft. Through a network of over 45 Indian suppliers, more than 6,000 professionals in India contribute directly and indirectly to all Airbus programmes and every aircraft produced today is partly made in India. The A320neo Family incorporates latest technologies including new generation engines and wing tip devices, which together deliver more than 15 percent in fuel savings from day one and 20 percent by 2020. The A320neo Family is the world’s best-selling single aisle product line with over 5,000 orders from 92 customers since its launch in 2010 capturing almost 60 percent share of the market. Thanks to their widest cabin, all members of the A320neo Family offer unmatched comfort in all classes and Airbus’ 18” wide seats in economy as standard. To date over 70 A320neo have been delivered to 18 customers.

India’s national carrier Air India is looking to add new routes between India and North America. Speaking at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2017 in Mumbai, Pankaj Srivastava, Director Commercial, Air India, revealed, “We want to expand in North America and are exploring new routes like Houston and Dallas. We currently cut down travel time between the two continents by at least 10 hours.” He added, “There will also be a tenth destination in Europe soon. We are thinking of Scandinavia, and looking at either Glasgow or Copenhagen as options. We are also looking at increasing our flights into Australia and intend to take it to five flights into Sydney and five into Melbourne.”