Tag Archives: Mumbai

Air India Engineering Services Limited, a subsidiary of Air India today has completed a major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for the first time of Jet Airways A330 at its Mumbai facility. A330 was a part of Air India fleet till 2014, however to perform third party maintenance check Air India trained its staff and received necessary licenses to deliver major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for Jet Airways A330. The first Jet Airways A330 aircraft VT-JWR ‘C-1’ Check was inducted on 26th April, 2017 and was handed over to the airline in a short span on 11th May, 2017. The C-1 check for A330 is done every 2 years or ten thousand flight hours whichever is early. Earlier in May, 2016, Air India also completed major ‘C’ check on Jet Airways Boeing B777 aircraft at their Mumbai facility.

New Zealand has witnessed a steady increase in arrivals from India with 53,424 travellers visiting there as of March 2017, a 14.9 per cent growth from same period last year. To further boost the Indian tourist numbers, Tourism New Zealand is tying up with two airlines to promote the island country in the India sub-continent. The partnership between Tourism New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand is valid from May 2017 to April 2018 and will seek to position Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines as the preferred carriers for travelling to the country and promotional fares will be offered to passengers. The strategic partnership aims to encourage more travellers from key cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakhapatnam. “New Zealand is the ultimate destination for many Indian travellers and special promotional fares provide a great opportunity to turn their dream holiday into reality,” said Tourism New Zealand regional manager, South and South East Asia, Steven Dixon. Elaborating on the initiative, David Lim, General Manager, India, said, “We offer 98 weekly connections from 11 cities in India to Singapore and together with our partner – Air New Zealand, we provide over 25 weekly, onward connections to three cities (Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington) in New Zealand.” Scott Carr, Regional General Manager-Asia, Air New Zealand, said, “India is one of our fastest-growing emerging markets and we’re excited about the potential of this campaign to reach more Indian travellers. Through our alliance and code share services with Singapore Airlines, we connect passengers from 11 Indian cities to Singapore, where they can access three non-stop flights a day to New Zealand.”

A delegation of Belgian companies led by Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pieter De Crem, were in Mumbai recently on an economic mission to underline the importance of the newly-reinstated route between Mumbai and Brussels and the relations between India and Belgium. Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines, was also part of the delegation. On March 30, Belgian airline Brussels Airlines connected Mumbai Chhatrapati Airport to Brussels Airport five times a week with a direct flight for the first time since the route was abandoned last year. There was a high demand from various industries (pharmaceutical, diamond, maritime, industry, amongst others), from leisure travelers and cargo forwarders to reinstate a direct service. Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines, says, “India is an important economic partner for Belgium and has a large leisure potential at the same time. The demand for direct flights for passengers as well as for cargo is high. With our new service, we offer the diamond- and travel industry direct flights, which is an important investment in our network expansion, but also in the economic relations between India and Belgium.” The flight schedule consists of daytime flights to Mumbai on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The flights depart in the morning and arrive late in the evening in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Flights leave Mumbai on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and arrive in Brussels early the next morning. Speaking about how the new route can help trade, Pieter De Crem, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, says, “Belgium and India are close economic partners. Our country is the 2nd EU exporter of goods to India, just behind Germany. For Indian companies, Belgium is …

Garuda Indonesia recently hosted an Open House for the travel trade in Mumbai in association with Visit Indonesia Tourism Office. The airline has appointed Bird Travels as its GSA that has eight offices across India. The purpose of the event was to create awareness about the airline’s new office in Mumbai and informing the trade about the various opportunities available to promote Indonesia as a destination. Garuda Indonesia recently inaugurated its office in Mumbai. Product presentation was given to the travel fraternity to update them more on Garuda Indonesia Services and to promote Indonesian destinations beyond Bali. To enable passengers to take advantage of the summer holiday season, Garuda Indonesia is running a special return promotional fare valid for travel until April 26, 2017. Mumbai to Jakarta and Denpasar (Bali) all-inclusive Economy class return fares starts from Rs. 22,000 and Business class from Rs. 58,000. (T&C apply) The fares are available for purchase from the Garuda Indonesia, Mumbai sales office and the appointed travel agents. Garuda Indonesia’s Jakarta-bound service operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and is operated by Garuda’s state-of-the-art 162-seater, Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Cox & Kings Global Services’ Thailand Visa Application Centre (VAC) has moved to a new spacious office in Nariman Point, Mumbai. The new office was inaugurated recently by His Excellency Ekapol Poolpipat, Consul General, Royal Thai Consulate in Mumbai. The office is more spacious and offers a lot of benefits to customers including more application counters to make it quicker and easier for customers to submit their visa applications. Customers can submit their application from Monday to Friday 08:00 hours to 12:00 hours (except holidays), while timings for passport collection are- Monday to Friday 16:00 hours to 17:00 hours (except holidays). It is located at Dalamal Towers, A Wing, 4th Floor, Unit No: 410 – 412, Free Press Journal Marg, Nariman Point.

Brussels Airlines now connects Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport to Brussels Airport with a direct flight. The departure of the first flight out of Mumbai, was celebrated with a ribbon and cake cutting ceremony. The flight schedule consists of daytime flights to Mumbai on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The flights depart in the morning and arrive late in the evening at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. “Our new service received a warm welcome here in the Indian market. We see very encouraging booking results for travel to Belgium and many destinations beyond Brussels like Canada, the States, the UK, Spain, France and several African destinations.” – Patrick Roofthooft, Brussels Airlines Director India and Commercial Development. Flights leave Mumbai on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and arrive in Brussels early the next morning. Since the past year, there was no longer a direct connection by air between India and Belgium. The demand from various industries (pharmaceutical, diamond, maritime amongst others), from leisure travelers and cargo forwarders for a direct service was high. The Mumbai-Brussels flight schedule will allow seamless connections to many European, African and American destinations in the Brussels Airlines network, like London Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, Geneva, Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Stockholm, Milan, Madrid and the intercontinental flights to New York, Toronto, Washington and 19 African destinations.

Crystal Cruises offering luxury ocean cruises, river yacht cruises and yacht expeditions showcased its offering to the Indian travel trade in Mumbai. Speaking on the occasion Edie Rodriguez, President and CEO, Crystal Cruises, said, “Crystal Cruises touches all seven seas and all seven continents. In the year 2018 our ship will be docking Mumbai for 3 nights. We look for Indians who want to fly away and sail in our cruises around the world.  We are an all inclusive brand so we offer tremendous value and experience for the price to our guests.  Crystal cruises consists of two vessels Symphony and Serenity each hosts about 1,000 guests and do itinerary of around the world from 5 nights to 128 nights.” One of its four world cruises which will be leaving in January 2018 from Cape Town, South Africa will make its way across India touching several ports in India in the first quarter of 2018. As fly away vacations in the month of august Crystal Cruises will be launching crystal air cruises around the world by private jet as well as crystal luxury which is the bombardier global express having a 12 seat capacity. Crystal Air Cruises which will be launched in August 31 this year which will consist of a 777 aircraft which usually has a seating capacity of 350 guests has been configured for only 84 guests offering flatbed crystal exclusive class seating. Air cruises will take guests around the world for 2, 3 and 4 weeks. This year in summer Crystal Cruises will be taking delivery of two new river vessels which will be doing Rhine-Main in Danube. In the mid 2019 it will take delivery of …

Lufthansa Group has announced that it will deploy its latest long haul aircraft, Airbus A350-900, to Mumbai during the summer schedule of 2017. From April 16 onwards, Mumbai becomes the third destination worldwide to welcome the state-of-the-art aircraft. Flying on Lufthansa’s Munich (MUC) to Mumbai (MUM) route, the A350-900 will offer Mumbai area residents travel choices and better connections to Lufthansa’s vast global network. Earlier this month, Lufthansa Group marked a key milestone in Indian aviation by starting the first commercial operations of A350-900 to Delhi.

The relocated France Visa Application Centre was inaugurated by Yves Perrin, Consul General of France in Mumbai, on February 27, 2017. Residents of Pune can now apply for visas to multiple countries, including France, under one roof, at the modern and centrally-located Joint Visa Application Centre in Viman Nagar. The Centre also serves 15 other Schengen countries besides France, including Italy, Germany, Austria, Greece, Latvia, Sweden, Swiss, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Estonia. In addition to this, the centre will also cater to the client governments of Australia, UK, Ireland, Canada, USA, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey and UAE. Many of these centres were earlier located in Tadiwala Road and Kalyani Nagar areas of the city. With the launch of the new Joint Visa Application Centre, VFS Global has consolidated all visa requirements under one roof. With a larger space and state-of-the-art infrastructure, the new Joint Visa Application Centre has an increased number of application counters making the visa application process quicker and more convenient for applicants. The centre is equipped with dedicated counters for individuals, representatives and travel agents making the visa application experience hassle-free and convenient for all.

In 2016, Thailand welcomed 1.19 million Indian travellers, as per the recent numbers released by Department of Tourism, Thailand, and for 2017, the target is 14 per cent increase in revenue and eight per cent increase in footfalls expected from India alone. This was revealed by Soraya Homchuen, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Mumbai. “The focus destinations this year will be mainly the local communities along with Chiang Mai, Krabi, Trat and Bangkok. While Thailand is a thriving modern nation that offers luxury and comfort of the 21st century, it’s the unique Thai traditions and attractions that are often most memorable for visitors. In 2017, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) aims to offer ‘Value for Experiences’ to travellers coming to the Kingdom by focusing on ‘Unique Thai Local Experiences’. On a global scale, India is ranked sixth in terms of tourist arrivals in Thailand,” she revealed. TAT has announced the theme for 2017 – ‘Discover Unique Local Experiences’. The objective behind this campaign is to promote Thailand as a wealth of cultural heritage with a competitive edge in the travel and tourism sector. Srisuda Wanapinyosak, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Asia and the South Pacific) and brand ambassador Anusha Dandekar attended the event. Srisuda Wanapinyosak, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Asia and the South Pacific) said, “India has always been one of the significant markets for us as each year we see an increase in the footfalls. This year too we are expecting a phenomenal growth of 8 per cent. When you visit Thailand, you always discover something new and unique which makes you want to visit the kingdom time and again. This year, with Discover Unique Local …