Tag Archives: Chief Commercial Officer

Marking a milestone of being the first airline to launch Lucknow-Goa and Lucknow-Pune sectors to its network, IndiGo has announced the introduction of its maiden flights effective July 2018. IndiGo will operate a daily non-stop flight between Lucknow-Goa-Lucknow and Lucknow-Pune-Lucknow respectively. Continuing the low-cost carrier’s expansion in the domestic skies, IndiGo’s average daily departures will now be 25 flights out of Lucknow to 13 destinations. The introduction of these flights will further strengthen the airline’s operations, and will provide enhanced connectivity between Lucknow and other key cities with all-inclusive fares starting from Rs 3999. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to announce the launch of these two sectors from Lucknow, which will further provide more flexibility of choice to our customers. We are providing affordable fares on these new routes for 6E travellers. It is our constant endeavour to provide the best travel experience to our customers, as IndiGo continues to offer them on-time, courteous and hassle-free service and an affordable flying experience always.”

IndiGo has recorded the highest on-time performance of 80.9 per cent in May 2018, according to a report by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). On-time performance of the scheduled domestic carriers has been computed for four metros including Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai by the regulator. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “On-time performance is core to our business and is one of the three values that IndiGo stands for. We are indeed happy to record 80.9 per cent OTP for 6E flights operating out of country’s busiest airports including Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. We thank our over 48.53 lakh passengers who flew with IndiGo in May 2018.  IndiGo will continue to provide an on-time, courteous and hassle free service, and affordable fares to our customers, as always.” IndiGo was also ranked as 4th most punctual airline globally in the mega airline category by OAG, air travel Intelligence Company. In its annual review – Punctuality League 2018, OAG included on-time performance for the world’s Top 20 busiest domestic and international routes. IndiGo was ranked 4th amongst Top 20 mega airlines and 9th amongst Top 20 Low-cost carriers (LCCs) by OTP.

Travelport has announced the signing of a multiyear agreement with Qantas Airways that includes distribution of the Australian national carrier’s content and integration into Qantas’ recently announced NDC platform, the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP). Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution has been deployed, giving over 65,000 of Travelport-connected travel agencies globally access to images of cabins and meals. These agents will also be able to book ancillaries such as extra legroom seating. Stephen Shurrock, Chief Commercial Officer, Travelport commented, “This agreement is testament to Qantas’ commendable forward-looking vision. Whether it’s the deployment of Rich Content and Branding or our new NDC capabilities, Travelport is uniquely equipped to support Qantas in optimizing content distribution globally.” Travelport is the first operator of a global distribution system to be granted the highest certification by IATA for its New Distribution Capability (NDC) airline distribution technology. With this, Travelport is well-positioned to support the QDP, improving the flexibility of content distribution, as the airline becomes one of the first to deploy NDC content later this year. It is the only such company to be cited by Qantas as an early adopter.  

IndiGo is all set to add two more sectors connecting Tiruchirappalli by operating a direct flight between Tiruchirappalli and Bengaluru and Tiruchirappalli and Kochi. IndiGo with its seventh ATR will operate four direct flights from Chennai to Tiruchirappalli from June 1. Chief Commercial Officer Sanjay Kumar presented the airline’s expansion plan during a travel agent meet held in Tiruchirappalli. The new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options. The introduction of these flights will further strengthen airline’s ATR operations, and will provide enhanced connectivity between Chennai and Tiruchirappalli with all-inclusive fares starting from INR 2299. Elaborating on the new route expansion in south India, Kumar said, “Just like Coimbatore, Madurai and Chennai, Tiruchirappalli is also a key market for IndiGo in Tamil Nadu. With rising business and tourism stemming from the southern hubs, IndiGo is determined to provide the best travel experience to all those who wish to fly to these destinations. We are looking at providing affordable fares on these new routes for 6E travellers. It is our constant endeavour to provide more flexibility of choice to our customers as IndiGo continues to offer them on time, hassle-free and always affordable flying experience”

Sabre Corporation has appointed Roshan Mendis as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of its Travel Network business. As CCO, Mendis will be responsible for leading global sales, sales operations and business development initiatives worldwide, and will play an instrumental role in driving Sabre’s global travel distribution business as it invests in a fast-forward approach to next-generation retailing and distribution. “Mendis has the vision, customer commitment and industry expertise to ensure that Sabre is ready to meet its customers’ needs today and well into the future,” said Wade Jones, President, Sabre Travel Network. “We conducted an exhaustive, global search and I’m not surprised that we found the very best leader and candidate from within Sabre.” A 20-year veteran of the travel technology industry, Mendis most recently served as Senior Vice President of Travel Network for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions where Sabre saw its 2017 bookings grow 9.8 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively. Prior to this, he led the APAC region for Travel Network and was instrumental in the company’s acquisition and successful integration of Singapore-based GDS, Abacus International. Mendis will continue to be based in London.  

Travelport has launched its product roadmap to extend its content offering to airline customers using the International Air Transport Association (IATA) New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard. The new products will enable travel agency customers to access such content via Travelport’s platform. The company is now extending its lead by industrialising its NDC capability and incorporating NDC content within its suite of products for airlines and travel agencies. These products will allow travel agencies to connect through Travelport’s platform in a single workflow combining traditional content and new NDC content. Stephen Shurrock, Chief Commercial Officer, Travelport commented, “Building on our unique NDC Level 3 status, we are extending our range of products ready for the new mixed-economy era of airline distribution. Travelport has a rich history of innovation and, with our NDC-enabled products, we intend to maintain this as we seamlessly, speedily and accurately deliver the broadest range of bookable content to our customers.” Yanik Hoyles, Director-NDC Program, IATA added ,“Following its achievement as the first GDS to become NDC Level 3 certified as an aggregator, we congratulate Travelport on its continued progress in developing products for this new era and look forward to their initial launch later this year.”    

Sharing its operational plans from Colombo, IndiGo has announced that Colombo will become its eighth international destination effective January 20, 2018 with daily direct flights from Chennai and Bengaluru. With these new flights, the airline will also offer connections to and from Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and other major Indian cities. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “It gives us immense pleasure to add Colombo to our growing network, which will not only help us cater to the growing tourist potential of the city, but also provide affordable travel options to the Indian workforce who can now look forward to visiting the city more frequently. We are also delighted to partner with Hemas as our GSA partner in Sri Lanka for our sales and distribution services.” Malinga Arsakularatne, Managing Director, Hemas Leisure Travel Aviation Group added, “We welcome IndiGo to Sri Lanka and it is indeed our great pleasure to embark on this exciting partnership. We are confident that the team at Hemas Aviation would deliver the growth ambitions of the airline. We look forward to a long-lasting and a win-win relationship with IndiGo.”

Finnair is poised to enter the largest expansion in its history during the upcoming winter season with new routes opening to 20 intercontinental destinations including India, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Lapland. Finnair is opening new routes to Goa from November 1, 2017; to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on November 5; to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on November 30 and to Havana, Cuba on December 1. Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Finnair says, “This winter, we are entering the biggest expansion phase in our airline’s 94-year history. We are opening several new destinations, expanding our network and fleet including our eleven Airbus A350s, adding capacity to Finnish Lapland and taking important strides in our customer experience. It’s a very exciting time to fly Finnair.” Finnair currently flies six weekly to Delhi, two weekly to Goa, and 16 weekly to Bangkok, among other Asian destinations. Due to the continued increase in demand for Lapland as a tourist destination, Finnair is also heavily expanding its capacity to several Lapland airports for the upcoming winter season. The airline is increasing its capacity to Lapland by over 20 per cent. As of mid-December, Finnair will start flying new non-stop flights to Lapland airports from London Gatwick, Paris and Zurich. Finnair is also increasing its capacity from Helsinki airport to several Lapland airports for the entire winter season and offers a total of 430,000 seats to five of Lapland’s airports during the winter season.

Jet Airways is all set to commence its third daily non-stop service between Mumbai and London Heathrow with effect from the forthcoming weekend. This makes Jet the only Indian airline to operate thrice daily services between Mumbai and London Heathrow – one of the world’s busiest airports. The latest frequency to London Heathrow – 9W 116, will depart on Sunday, October 29, 2017, from Mumbai on board Jet Airways’ Boeing 777-300 ER. The addition of the third flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow complements the airline’s existing operations to the English capital from its hubs in Mumbai and Delhi, aboard its flagship B777-300 ER aircraft. Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways said, “Jet Airways is delighted to offer a third non-stop service between Mumbai and London Heathrow. Our latest offering will enable us to capitalise on the demand and popularity of this sector, and together with our codeshare partners, allow us to offer convenience and seamless connectivity to travellers to 14 destinations in North America” The third frequency enhances onward connectivity over London Heathrow to North America. With partners Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic it will allow Jet Airways to offer guests improved connection times to 14 destinations over London Heathrow to North America including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Washington.

Jet Airways is set to introduce as many as 56 new weekly flights this month and the next, ahead of the busy festive season. In a series of industry-firsts, the airline will introduce daily flights from Pune, connecting them to Guwahati via Kolkata as well as to Coimbatore. In other notable step, Jet Airways is also set to commence flight operations between Bengaluru and Silchar, as well as to New Delhi and Jorhat. The airline will be the only airline in the country to have flights on these routes which will not only bolster connectivity from Pune, but will also improve connectivity of the North East with the rest of the country. The airline is also introducing additional non-stop frequencies on certain existing routes such as Pune – Kolkata, Jaipur – New Delhi, Guwahati – New Delhi and Chennai – New Delhi, reflecting the growing demand for its services to facilitate the travel aspirations of its guest Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways said, “Introducing the new flights and frequencies will strengthen our presence in the emerging cities. We will be able to provide greater choice, convenience and connectivity to our guests, who can easily connect with our hubs in Mumbai and Delhi and onwards into our wide international network.”