Tag Archives: Air India

Air India and Jet Airways passengers travelling from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI)can now check-in at two Delhi Metro stations namely Shivaji Stadium Metro Station and New Delhi Metro Station. This facility will be made available from July 1. Earlier, only Air India passengers could check in at New Delhi Metro Station of the high speed corridor–Airport Express. The new facility will be available to passengers of the two airlines, flying both on domestic as well as international routes. The check-in counters at the stations will close two hours before the scheduled departure of a flight. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation informed that the passengers can obtain the boarding pass at these check-in counters and check-in the baggage as well which will be transferred to IGI Airport’s Terminal-3 through a secured Baggage Handling System (BHS).

Air India has announced special fares for students on its domestic network. Under this offer, students after providing required documents would be able to avail tickets at Rs 3,500 (all inclusive) for distance up to 1000 km and at Rs 5,500 (all inclusive) for distance over 1000 km. The booking period for this offer started from June 1, 2016 and tickets can be booked till August 31, 2016 for travel between July 1, 2016 to August 31, 2016. Students travelling for various academic reasons like proceeding to join their school, college or to give entrance exam would be able to benefit from this special offer. To avail these special fares, students are required to provide photo copy of the following documents while booking: Admit card/ Examination hall ticket or admission slip/ Photo Id of the institution. The tickets can be booked at Air India city and airport booking offices. Air India offers the best flying experience with more legroom and value for money.

The Maharaja will soon come to the rescue of wait-listed passengers of Rajdhani trains. Come June, IRCTC will provide Rajdhani wait-list passengers with the option of taking an Air India flight to their destination by paying marginally extra. Air India and IRCTC have already entered into a pact for the proposed arrangement which is expected to be in place “within a week”, the carrier’s chief Ashwani Lohani told news agency PTI. Under the proposed arrangement, people who have unconfirmed tickets across classes on Rajdhani trains would have the choice of boarding an Air India flight, provided the airline has services in the particular train route chosen by the passenger. Air India tickets would be offered to such passengers through IRCTC. Lohani, who is Air India Chairman and Managing Director, said details are being worked out and the arrangement is expected to be in place “within a week”. The wait-listed passengers of AC First Class of Rajdhani trains would not have to pay any additional amount in case they decide to take an Air India flight. In the case of those booked on Rajdhani Second and Third AC classes, the passengers would have to pay up to Rs. 2,000 per ticket as additional amount for flying Air India, Lohani said. The latest move is expected to help Air India in filling up more seats on its planes amid the carrier working on ways to turnaround its fortunes. Meanwhile, Air India is chalking out ambitious expansion plan to operate more number of smaller aircraft in various states as they look to increase regional air connectivity. In this regard, Air India’s wholly-owned subsidiary Air Alliance plans to increase the number of ATRs in …

Air India boosts regional connectivity by commencing operations to Pune via Raipur from Bhopal. Flight AI 9865 operating with a 70 seater ATR-72 will ply on the route Bhopal-Raipur-Pune. The flight will operate thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Air India offers a direct air link on this route for the first time. The flight will leave Bhopal at 0845 hrs and land at Raipur at 1015 hrs, will depart from Raipur at 1045 hrs and arrive in to Pune at 1300 hrs. The return flight AI 9866 will leave Pune at 1330 hrs and reach Raipur at 1545 hrs, depart Raipur at 1615 hrs and will touch down at Bhopal at 1745 hrs. Present on the occasion to launch the flight Minister of Home and Jail, Madhya Pradesh, Babulal Gaur, said, “We congratulate Air India for starting this flight as it will save travelling time for passengers commuting to regions like Raipur and Pune from Bhopal. The 100% occupancy on the first flight is a testimony of the demand for such flights to push regional connectivity.” At Raipur the flight was received and flagged off by Minister for Agriculture, Chhattisgarh Brij Mohan Aggarwal. The passengers arriving at Pune were greeted by the Airport Director Shri Ajay Kumar who also gave the boarding card to the first passenger to check-in for the return flight to Raipur.

National carrier, Air India has become the first airline to launch self check-in kiosks for its domestic fliers that aims to make the check-in process expeditious. The exclusive service presently covers 26 domestic centers at Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, New Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam and Varanasi. Under this initiative, started on May 1, 2016, customers can procure the boarding pass by using the self-check-in kiosks also known as CUSS (Common Use Self Service) near the check-in area at the airport.

Air India has launched its services on two new routes — Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad and Bhopal-Raipur-Pune sectors from May 23, 2016, on its wholly owned subsidiary Alliance. The fares for Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad, as well as Bhopal-Raipur-Pune flight start from Rs 2601 one way. The new flights come as part of its Connect India programme. These services will fulfill a long standing demand of the students’ community, IT, Industrial and defence sectors. Alliance Air will operate a 72-seater ATR aircraft on these routes thus giving connectivity to smaller destinations within the country under the Government’s scheme of connecting all cities in India. Flight AI 9863 on Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad shall operate four days a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The flight will take-off from Bhopal at 0845 hrs. and reach Jabalpur at 0950 hrs. The flight will take-off from Jabalpur at 1020 hrs. for its onward journey and will reach Hyderabad at 1220 hrs. The return flight AI 9864 will take-off from Hyderabad at 1250 hrs. and will reach Jabalpur at 1450 hrs. The flight will leave Jabalpur at 1450 hrs. and will touch down at Bhopal at 1625 hrs. Alliance Air will commence another direct flight AI 9867/9868 between Bhopal and Jabalpur from June 16, 2016. The flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays thereby making the operation on this route. A daily one. The flight AI 9865 on the second route – Bhopal-Raipur-Pune – will take off from Bhopal at 0845 hrs. and reach Raipur at 1015 hrs. The flight will leave Raipur at 1045 hrs. and will reach Pune at 1300 hrs. The return flight AI 9866 will leave Pune at 1330 hrs. and reach Raipur at 1545 hrs., depart …

Air India recorded a growth of 25 per cent in passenger traffic to Singapore in 2015 making it one of the top contributors in terms of absolute growth in passenger carriage between Singapore and South Asia. The growth in Air India’s passenger traffic far exceeded the overall increase in passenger traffic at Changi Airport last year, which increased to 55.4 million passengers corresponding to an increase of 2.6 per cent. Indian nationals accounted for over six per cent of Changi’s total traffic with 3.4 million Indian travellers passing through the airport in 2015. According to Changi Airport’s statement, Air India’s growth in passenger carriage on its Singapore routes in 2015, is largely spurred by an increased passenger capacity due to aircraft upgrade, as well as an expansion of routes in the last two years. Air India increased capacity on its Singapore routes last year, and now operates 42 weekly flights to the Singapore, including daily services from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Singapore is now connected to 13 Indian cities with 404 weekly flights. The statement further added that the passenger traffic between India and Singapore is set to grow, with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Silk Air’s (SIA’S subsidiary) recently increased frequencies to Cochin, Colombo, Hyderabad and Trivandrum and low-cost carrier Scoot’s entry to the Indian market from May 2016. Source: PTI

The inaugural day of the India Aviation 2016 saw Air India sign an agreement with ALAFCO, a Kuwait based leasing company for leasing 14 Airbus A320neo aircraft. The delivery of aircraft is likely to start from early next year. The historic agreement was signed between Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani and the Vice Chairman and CEO of ALAFCO Ahmad Al Zabin in the presence of CEO of CFM Paul Abanga and Philippe Combet Vice President Sales and his team from Airbus. This induction will augment Air India’s capacity in domestic market. Air India already has strong infrastructure maintenance facilities for the Airbus A320 family. The partnership between Air India and Airbus dates back to 1989 when the erstwhile Indian Airlines became the launch customer to induct the Airbus A320. Speaking on the momentous occasion Ashwani Lohani CMD Air India said, “This is a very important partnership for Air India. The A320 aircraft will add strength to our existing fleet and enhance our role as a major player in the domestic market.” These A320neo aircraft will come fitted with the new generation CFM leap engines which will reduce noise and emissions, enhance the operational efficiency and reduce fuel consumption by at least 15% while offering the passengers the best in class comfort. Air India and CFM enjoy a long standing partnership as CFM engines are fitted on the existing A320 family aircraft.”

Air India has launched an Air Pass for pilgrims to major Buddhist cities in India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. This coupon-based scheme for journeys originating in Yangon and Colombo, and is applicable to all types of journeys in economy class, except group travel. Under this scheme one can combine destinations Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India in a single journey. The fares are divided into four schemes—two for flights originating from Myanmar and two from Sri Lanka. Under scheme one can avail ex-Yangon six flight coupons for US$600, while scheme two offers eight ex-Yangon coupons for US$800. Schemes three and four are for flights from Sri Lanka, which offers six coupons for US$450 or eight coupons for US$800. Tickets can be booked at Air India offices or through travel agents, and are valid for 60 days from the start date of the journey.

Air India operated the longest all-women crew flight from New Delhi to San Francisco on March 6, to celebrate International Women’s Day. The “historic” New Delhi – San Francisco flight had 14 crew members and four pilots, all women. The flight left on March 6 and will return on March 8, reports PTI. Besides, the national carrier today said it would be operate over 20 all-women crew flights in domestic routes on March 8 to commemorate International Women’s Day. Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani had said that the flight to San Francisco on March 6 will be a symbol of “women empowerment”. “It will be a historic flight and the longest to be operated by all-women crew,” Lohani had said. The state-run airline has around 3,800 women workforce of the total 27,500 people with 20,500 of them regular. Duration of the flight would be more than 15 hours. According to him, the airline has immense respect for women and everyone associated with the flight, including pilots, engineers and those at the gate would be women. Every year, Air India operates all-women flights to celebrate the international women’s day.