Tag Archives: IATA

In 2017, around 60 million international passengers flew to/from India, up from 55 million in 2016, according to a report by IATA, titled ‘The Future is Bright… But Not Without Its Challenges’.  The 2017 outcomes represents an increase of 10.3 per cent on 2016 and is the third consecutive year of double-digit international passenger growth. While the international market has not grown as fast as its domestic counterpart, the sustained period of robust growth, over a number of years, is still readily evident.

In 2017, more than 158 million passengers flew on routes to, from and within India, according to a report by IATA, titled ‘The Future is Bright… But Not Without Its Challenges’. This represents an increase of almost 15 per cent over 2016 and is the third consecutive year of growth in the order of 15-20 per cent per year. The reports for 2018 year-to-date suggest that India is on track to record a fourth straight year of double-digit passenger growth. The strong performance of air passenger demand growth in India has not been confined to just the past few years, however; the total number of air passengers has more than doubled over the past seven years, from a level of 79 million journeys undertaken in 2010, the report said.

With an aim to develop skilled human capital for the aviation industry, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has appointed Bird Academy as their regional training partner in India. The partnership was made official during a signing ceremony between Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA and Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group. Speaking on the partnership, Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President- Asia Pacific, IATA said, “India is expected to treble to 520 million passengers travelling to, from or within by 2037. The demand for trained aviation professionals will continue to grow. We look forward to a successful partnership with the Bird Academy to fulfill India’s training requirements.”On the occasion, Bhatia also announced that India will be hosting the next IATA Global Training Partner Conference in April 2019.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), at International Aviation Summit held in Delhi, called on the government of India to maximise the potential contribution of aviation to India’s development by addressing infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that impose excessive costs on aviation. Growth forecasts for India indicate a trebling of passenger demand by 2037 when some 500 million people are expected to fly to, from or within India. Already aviation supports 7.5 million Indian jobs and Rs 30 billion of GDP (1.5% of the economy). The Summit, being co-hosted by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Airports Authority India (AAI) and IATA, commemorates the approaching milestone of 50-straight months of double digit domestic growth for Indian aviation. “While it is easy to find Indian passengers who want to fly, it’s very difficult for airlines to make money in this market. India’s social and economic development needs airlines to be able to profitably accommodate growing demand. We must address infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that deviate from global standards and drive up the cost of connectivity,” said Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA. India’s aviation infrastructure has benefitted from significant upgrades in recent years. “It is clear that India has the capacity to develop effective infrastructure. But the job is not done. Passenger numbers will grow. And infrastructure must not be a bottleneck in fulfilling the needs of travelers and the economy,” said de Juniac who called for work in four priority areas – develop a comprehensive and strategic master plan for India’s airports, remove all obstacles to successfully opening Navi Mumbai as quickly as possible, modernise airport processes using technology in …

Vietnam Airlines has withdrawn its IATA commission for travel agents applicable for all tickets issued in India, effective July 15, 2018. According to a statement released by the airline, the commission will be reduced from the existing 3 per cent to 0 per cent. Earlier, Oman Air, Jet Airways and Etihad have also have withdrawn IATA commission for agents.

Vistara has become the third Indian carrier to be a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade association of more than 280 airlines, which will help it provide a seamless travel experience through an extended global network to travellers to and from India. Vistara, the full-service carrier promoted by Tata Sons Limited and Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA), recently became eligible to start international operations. Air India and Jet Airways are the two other airlines in India that are IATA members. The IATA membership will enable Vistara to collaborate with other international member airlines for codeshare and interline agreements, and provide a seamless travel experience through an extended global network to travellers to and from India, the airline said in a statement. IATA represents airlines from over 120 countries. It advocates for the interests of airlines across the globe, establishes standards to simplify process and increase passenger convenience, and helps airlines to operate safely, efficiently and economically. “This membership couldnt have come at a better time as we gear up to launch our international operations soon. Vistara has set new benchmarks for air travel in India, and with IATA?s membership we are confident to showcase Vistara’s strengths on a global scale,” Leslie Thng, Vistara chief executive officer said. Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, IATA, said they were looking forward to working with Vistara in shaping IATA’s priorities for India and the global aviation industry.   Source: PTI

In line with major airlines reducing agents’ commission on airline ticket bookings, SriLankan Airlines too has followed suit. According to a statement released by the airline, from April 1, 2018, SriLankan Airlines will reduce its commission to 2 per cent from the earlier 5 per cent applicable to any/all tickets issued in India and move given to IATA agents. All tickets issued prior to April 1, 2018 will be eligible to avail 5 per cent commission. When asked about the details on the same, Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager—Northern India, SriLankan Airlines said, “We are awaiting further clarification from the Head Office. The trade partners will be kept abreast about any further development in this announcement.”  

Oman Air has withdrawn its IATA commission for travel agents applicable for all tickets issued in India, effective March 1, 2018. According to a statement released by the airline, the commission will be reduced from one per cent to zero per cent. All tickets prior to March 1 will be eligible for 1 per cent IATA commission. Earlier, Jet Airways and Etihad have also have withdrawn IATA commission for agents.

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.”    

Sabre Corporation has been recognised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as NDC Level 3 capable as an IT provider. Reaching this milestone less than two months after announcing Level 2 capability, Sabre accelerates its commitment to leading the evolution of retailing and distribution technology. By granting Sabre ‘NDC capable’ Level 3 status under the NDC certification programme, IATA recognises that Sabre supports deployments using offer and order management messages whose schema are compliant with the standard NDC message schema. Sabre has therefore demonstrated its ability to provide a broad range of retailing capabilities to a variety of sellers, including end-to-end offer and order fulfillment and servicing. Along with the ability to create and personalize offers, Level 3 capability indicates that Sabre is now positioned to fulfill and service those orders throughout the entire process in both direct and indirect channels. A major component of this includes verifying offer integrity and ensuring that the order management system can accurately enforce orders based on the rules of the original offer. It is Sabre’s leading position at the centre of the travel industry that empowers it to leverage data from a variety of sources, ultimately reinforcing offer integrity and fulfilment. Going forward, Sabre is actively working to deploy these capabilities in the coming months through close collaboration with its customers. Sabre is also certified as an NDC Level 1 aggregator, with a roadmap to reaching Level 3 in 2018.