Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Seema Kadam, Regional Director, India, LA Tourism, says that despite the visa challenges, they have seen immense growth in the number of travellers. Besides leisure segment, they have seen substantial growth in the M!CE segment, LA has an impressive number of large venues and hotel inventory to support demand.

The Ministry of Tourism has decided to close its foreign offices at Los Angeles, Toronto, Sydney, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan and Johannesburg. Alphons Kannanthanam, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, confirmed the news saying that they will be closing a few international offices in the near future. According to an official release from the MOT, the ministry will open a new office at Moscow. Thus, the Ministry of Tourism will now have offices at New York, Dubai, Frankfurt, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and London.

Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic have announced a further expansion of their codeshare agreement between India and the United States, which will make it even easier for guests to tailor their trip by combining flights from Jet Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines in a single booking. From April 19, 2017, Jet Airways guests travelling between India and the United States can connect through London Heathrow on to nine US destinations operated by Virgin Atlantic; Atlanta, Boston, Newark, Washington (IAD), New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle. This expansion builds on the existing agreement between Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic in place since 2009 – enabling Virgin Atlantic guests to travel on Jet Airways operated services between Mumbai and London Heathrow in addition to the airline’s own direct Delhi to London service. In 2015, this codeshare was extended on to Jet Airways domestic services allowing Virgin Atlantic guests to travel between London Heathrow and five destinations across India via Delhi or Mumbai. Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, “Offering greater choice and connectivity to our guests has always been a hallmark of our network strategy. The new codeshares build on the success of our ongoing cooperation with Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic over London Heathrow and will provide our guests with more connectivity to and within the United States. Further, our loyalty program partnership will also enable the frequent flyers of both carriers to accrue and redeem their miles across each other’s entire network.”

Starting in April, Korean Air will increase its flight frequency between Incheon and major US cities on the West Coast during summer schedule, strengthening its routes to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. Taking advantage of Korean Air’s newly launched direct flight to Delhi, together with its Mumbai flights, Indian customers can now enjoy widened flight options for traveling to the West Coast, transiting seamlessly at the airline’s world-class hub at Incheon. Korean Air representative for India said, “We are very positive about the expanding traveller sector in India, and we see that our flights to Delhi, launched in December last year, and also flights to Mumbai are well-received by the Indians. Furthermore, according to Brand USA, it is expected that Indian visitors’ number to US will increase by 72 per cent between 2015 and 2021, therefore we are confident on the growth of this market, especially on routes between India and the US West Coast.” “With our strong connectivity with the West Coast, we are committed to deliver our true ‘Excellence in Flight’ to all Indian travellers, offering them the best travel experience during the long haul. We hope to offer them the utmost in comfort with our convenient flight schedules and premium in-flight services, supported by the state-of-the-art transit facilities at the Incheon International Airport – Korean Air’s hub airport and one of the world’s top airports,” said Korean Air. Observed an increase in demand, Korean Air will increase the frequency of its flights to between Incheon and San Francisco on a gradual basis, starting from April 28th. From late April, flights will be increased from seven to 12 per week, and from September, flights will be further …