Tag Archives: Air India

Efforts put in by TAAI have finally borne fruit as the government has now permitted travel agents to book Vande Bharat flights. “We appreciate Air India, MoCA and NITI Aayog for supporting our initiatives, and look forward to more compliances to support the struggling industry,” says Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI. As of now, flights to USA, Germany (FRA) and France (CDG) have been announced in the coming phase.

Owing to the accumulation of dues over a long period of time, Airports Authority of India has now placed Air India on a Cash & Carry mode at four airports – Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Kolkata. The airline will now be required to make payment for parking or landing purposes on a daily or per-flight basis at these select airports.

The Empowered Group 6 (EG 6) constituted by Government of India and chaired by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, held a meeting with business leaders from the aviation industry and Ministry of Civil Aviation to discuss possibilities for strengthening operations and augmenting the recovery of the aviation sector under the new normal. The meeting was also attended by Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation; Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), which covers the functioning of banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and the National Pension System; and representatives of airlines such as IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir, AirAsia, Vistara and Air India.

As part of India’s fight against COVID-19, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched ‘Lifeline Udan’ flights for movement of medical and essential supplies across the country and beyond. Under this initiative, 62 Lifeline Udan flights have been operated during the five day period from 26th to 30th March 2020, transporting over 15.4 tons of essential medical supplies. 45 out of the 62 flights have been operated by Air India and Alliance Air. The carriers involved in Lifeline Udan operations include Air India, Alliance Air, Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pawan Hans. Support is being provided by Airports Authority of India (AAI), AAICLAS (cargo and logistics subsidiary of AAI), AI Airports Services (AIASL), PPP airports and private ground handling entities. Private carriers like IndiGo, Spicejet and Blue Dart are operating medical cargo flights on a commercial basis.

Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, Air India has decided to cancel all its flights to Kuwait till April 30 and curtail services to various other countries, including Spain, France and Sri Lanka. The national carrier currently operates to Kuwait from Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Goa and Mumbai. Under the revised flight schedule, Air India reportedly would operate only two flights on the Delhi-Madrid-Delhi route up to April 30, in place of the existing three. The third flight would remain cancelled between March 17 and April 28. Also, of the seven flights per week between Delhi and Paris now, the carrier has cancelled four services between March 16 and March 30. The other three flights will remain operational up to April 30, he said. The air services to Frankfurt from New Delhi have also been reduced to three per week from seven now between March 16 and April 30 while the Mumbai-Frankfurt services have been restricted to twice a week from March 18 to April 30 from four flights now, according to reports. From March 15, Air India will operate only two flights per week on the Delhi-Tel Aviv-Delhi route as against four services at present. In fact, even these two services on the route will not operate on March 15 and 16.

Air India has extended the suspension period for its Delhi-Shanghai and Delhi-Hong Kong services till June 30, owing to the outbreak of coronavirus. While IndiGo has also suspended flights to both the destinations till June 15. Earlier, Air India had cancelled its flights to Shanghai from 31 January to 14 February and to Hong Kong from 7 February until 28 March. Many international airlines have either reduced or suspended their operations to China. According to IATA, COVID-19 is expected to cause a 13 per cent full-year loss of passenger demand for carriers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Air India has resumed the biweekly flight operations from the Kozhikode to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) after 5 years, revealed Ministry of Civil Aviation in a recent tweet. The flight between Calicut International Airport and Jeddah would be using a Boeing 747-400, to operate on a Monday and Saturday every week. The flight will land at Calicut at 7.05 a.m. and depart for Jeddah at 5.30 p.m. The flight will reach Jeddah at 9.15 p.m. From Jeddah, the flight will depart from Fridays and Sundays at 11.15 p.m. Regarding configuration, the jet will have 12 seats for first class, 26 for business and 385 for economy.

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 national carrier, Air India is hoping to secure additional slots at the London Heathrow airport during 2020, which will help it grow sales and make the airline more attractive to potential suitors. Air India has obtained three additional slot pairs free of cost on a temporary basis in the winter season, apart from the 28 pairs of slots it already has. The airline will operate 11 flights between Mumbai-London Heathrow in February and March 2020.  “On passenger demand, Air India is going to introduce 11 special flights from Mumbai to London Heathrow. This service will start from February 14. We are in discussion with Heathrow airport authorities for this service on a full-year basis and are hopeful our request will be accepted,” said an Air India spokesperson. With over 700,000 annual passengers and 21 per cent market share Air India is the largest carrier on India-United Kingdom routes. Emirates and British Airways are ranked second and third. Currently, the national carrier operates 28 weekly services to Heathrow from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai. It also flies to Birmingham and London Stansted airports. (Source: Business Standard)

Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar, tells Tourism Breaking News that Air India and Air India Express will avoid Iranian airspace until further notice. He said, “We are still observing as to when it will be safe to fly over Iran. This rerouting will affect flights flying to Europe and US and will increase the flying time to 40 minutes from Mumbai and 20 minutes from Delhi.”