Air India Express will launch its first direct flight service from Surat to Sharjah on February 16. The flight will depart from Sharjah at 7:35 PM and arrive in Surat at 11:45 PM on Mondays and Saturdays. From Surat, the flight will depart at 12:30 AM with arrival into Sharjah at 02:15 AM on Tuesdays and Sundays. This service will be upgraded to four flights a week in the summer schedule. The airline will also expand services from Gulf to Kannur in Kerala in its summer schedule 2019, which shall commence on March 31, 2019. “Summer 2019 will witness additional capacity being deployed to strengthen the network between Gulf and Kerala. There will be two more flights on Mondays and Fridays,” the statement said. The airline will operate five flights on the Kozhikode-Riyadh sector in the Summer schedule’19 instead of the present four services per week. The additional flight will operate on Fridays at the existing timings. Operating with a fleet of 25 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, the airline will have 653 weekly departures in the new schedule, as against 621 per week currently. The increase in operations will be achieved through capacity addition and by increasing aircraft utilisation, which is poised to go up from about 13.3 hours currently to 13.4 hours per day per aircraft in the summer schedule, the airline said. Source: PTI
Read More »Jet Airways introduces 18 new flights on select domestic and international routes
Beginning December 2018, Jet Airways will introduce 18 additional flights on select destinations such as Bangkok, Kathmandu and Singapore in ASEAN as well as Doha and Dubai in the Gulf. Further, it will soon add a third daily frequency to Bangkok and Singapore each from Delhi and a third daily service to Singapore from Mumbai. Additional frequencies will also be introduced to the Gulf, strengthening the airline’s status as one of the largest carriers to/ from the region. December will see the introduction of second daily services connecting Mumbai and Delhi with Doha respectively. The addition of a seventh daily frequency between Mumbai and Dubai will also make Jet Airways the only airline to offer unparalleled 24-hour connectivity to the Gulf’s favourite destination with maximum number of daily services. Apart from it, the carrier will offer a fourth daily frequency between Delhi and Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Jet Airways also continues to augment its domestic connectivity at these hubs, and will increase operations between Mumbai and Amritsar to daily frequencies, and add a fourth daily frequency on the Delhi-Amritsar route in December. These steps are in addition to new services already introduced at the beginning of winter schedule, including new flights on the Delhi & Bangalore-Vadodara routes, increased frequencies in the Mumbai-Guwahati and Mumbai-Patna markets and an enhancement of capacity from ATR to 737 operations on the Delhi-Jodhpur route. Raj Sivakumar, Senior Vice President – Worldwide Sales & Distribution, Jet Airways, said, “The strategy will enable Jet Airways to offer extensive connectivity via Mumbai to most of its network in south and west India. Similarly, new services to Delhi will offer seamless connectivity to the north and east of …
Read More »Over 6,500 meetings at Tourism Australia’s India Travel Mission in Jaipur
The 16th edition of Tourism Australia’s India Travel Mission 2018 (ITM 2018) in Jaipur brought together 75 Australian tourism businesses to meet with 87 travel retailers from India in over 6,500 business appointments over three days. The event witnessed participation from 14 first-time sellers and 20 buyers. The spotlight during ITM 2018 was on Signature Experiences –a collection which offers a diverse range of travel options including Australian Wildlife Collection, Great Golf Courses of Australia, Great Walks of Australia, Luxury Lodges of Australia and the Ultimate Winery Experiences of Australia. “India is a significant market for Australia and has been seeing a very encouraging growth trend. The introduction of Signature Experiences, the participation of new products showcasing at ITM this year and commitment of tourism suppliers who have been investing in India over the past decade is a cohesive effort to bring top selection of Australian tourism experiences to Indian High Value Travellers (HVTs),” stated Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager – South & South East Asia, Tourism Australia. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager – India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “ITM 2018 has the largest ever delegation of Australian tourism suppliers. Our focus for the year is to sustain the growth in arrivals and drive yield through our strategic trade and consumer initiatives. After achieving the 2020 goal of 300,000 visitors, three years ahead of the target date, our ambitions are fuelled to go bigger and achieve higher milestones”. In addition to ITM, the distribution strategy of Tourism Australia includes an enriched trade engagement programme.
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