Tag Archives: Mumbai

Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, has announced a major fleet and network expansion in Europe and the Indian Ocean in 2017. This will see the airline introduce a second Airbus A330 aircraft, commence non-stop services to Düsseldorf, Durban, and increase its existing network to Mumbai. Roy Kinnear, Chief Executive Officer of Air Seychelles, said, “The addition of a second wide-body A330 to our fleet is set to open up significant growth opportunities, enabling Air Seychelles to extend its network footprint in Europe and the Indian Ocean region. In addition to flying to Europe, the Airbus A330 will be used to increase capacity on the airline’s five-per-week regional services to Mumbai, Johannesburg and Mauritius which are currently operated on a narrow-body A320. The introduction of a second wide body A330 will facilitate the upgrading of capacity on Mumbai on Saturdays, Johannesburg on Thursdays and Saturdays, and Mauritius on Sundays, increasing the combined seat capacity on these routes by 23 per cent. This development will allow Air Seychelles to allocate an Airbus A320 to launch flights to Durban, the second point served by Air Seychelles in South Africa, offering 14,171 seats to and from Seychelles each year as well as quick connections over Seychelles to Düsseldorf and Mumbai.”

Seychelles Tourism Board recently organised ‘Appreciation Evenings’ in New Delhi and Mumbai for its key travel trade, airline and hotel partners to thank them for their support. The tourism board also gave away appreciation awards to those travel agents and tour operators who have significantly contributed to the increase in awareness and tourist arrivals to Seychelles from India. Awardees in New Delhi included Destination Travel Services, Makemytrip, TUI and Travstarz. In Mumbai, Holidays Box, Vacations Exotica – Balmer Lawrie, Ottila and Air Seychelles were honoured. Hallmark Elite and Escape Holidays from Ahmedabad were also awarded. Patsy Moustache, Acting Charge de Affairs, Seychelles High Commission congratulated the tourism board team and the travel trade partners for their support.  This was followed by a destination update. Sherin Francis, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board, was not present at the events but she sent out a message that said, “When we started the India office in 2013, there were just around 2,000 Indians visiting Seychelles. Last year we touched 8,000. This number may seem small in comparison to the several thousands of tourists visiting other destination. But keeping in mind the exclusivity of the destination, our limited marketing budgets and most importantly the short period of time, we are proud of this achievement. The numbers this year so far show similar trend as last year and we are positive that we will cross our target of 2016. Though Seychelles remains the ultimate romantic destination we have seen several families, small MICE groups and adventure sports enthusiasts choosing the islands for their holiday.”

To mark its 10 years in India, Air China announced the resumption of its non-stop service between Beijing and Mumbai from Oct 30, 2016. The flight Mumbai, India to Beijing, P.R.China will operate four times in a week i.e., Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Passengers will also have return flight services from Beijing, P.R. China to Mumbai, India four times a week i.e., Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. Airbus A330-300 has a seating capacity of 301 passengers which offers 30 seats in Business class, 16 seats in Premium Economy and 255 seats in Economy Class. The outbound flight will depart from Mumbai at 02:30 IST and arrive in Beijing at 11:30 CST. The return flight will depart from Beijing at 19:40 CST and will arrive next day in Mumbai at 01:00 IST. In its endeavor to build its brand and increase loyalty among travellers, the airline has launched an offer of 30 per cent discount on base fare.

Hungary witnessed a growth of 70 per cent in Indian arrivals in 2016 till date, while 40,000 Indian tourists visited the country in 2015, informed Mark Kinces, International Marketing Manager, South-East Europe, Hungarian Tourism Agency. This was revealed at the roadshow conducted by Central Europe comprising of Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in Mumbai and New Delhi in order to promote the region in the Indian market. “We are not only receiving leisure tourists but also mid-sized groups and MICE travellers to Hungary,” says Kinces. According to Emilia Kubik, Asian Markets Project Leader, Polish Tourist Organisation, 26,000 Indian tourists visited Poland in 2015 and the country expects a 10 per cent increase in Indian arrivals by the end of 2016. Kubik also informed that Poland is also planning to introduce a destination specialist programme for the travel trade in 2017. Czech Republic is expecting to receive 50,000 Indian tourists from India by the end of 2016 revealed Karina Vitkova, International Marketing Manager, Long-haul Markets, Czech Tourism while Slovakia has seen a few thousand Indian arrivals and is hoping to increase awareness about the country amongst the travel trade in order to attract more arrivals explains Robert Vincze, Head-Slovak Convention Bureau, Slovak Tourism Board.

Air Canada has announced another direct connection between Mumbai and Toronto starting July 1,2017. India’ financial hub Mumbai and Toronto will now get a thrice a week direct non-stop service starting July 1, 2017 as part of the airline’s global expansion plan. The new announcement comes just after the news of its non-stop flights between Delhi and Vancouver beginning October 20, which too is a three-times weekly flight. Air Canada has also made its Delhi-Toronto flight a daily connection starting November 6, 2016. All these announcements from Air Canada have come within a year of launching the direct flights between Delhi and Toronto on the 3rd November 2015. “Customer response to our Toronto-Delhi service has been extremely positive and hence its becoming a daily service from 6th November 2016 . With the new Vancouver route we are strategically increasing our presence in the important Asia-Pacific market. “said Duncan Bureau , Vice President , Global Sales. The non-stop Dreamliner flights from the Vancouver hub will also offer the shortest elapsed flying time from Delhi to Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles .Together with our extensive Western Canada domestic and western US trans border network combined with the seamless connection experience through Vancouver’s US in-transit pre-clearance facilities, position Vancouver to be the preferred gateway hub for trans-pacific travel to and from North America. Air Canada will be the only carrier to offer a direct non-stop service between Canada and Mumbai . These routes will operate year-round with Air Canada’s state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The aircraft feature 29 International Business Class lie-flat seat suites, 21 Premium Economy and 247 Economy Class seats, with upgraded in-flight entertainment at every seat throughout the aircraft.

Both runways at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will not be available for landing and take-off from October 31 to November 28, 2016 on Mondays and Thursdays from 1200 to 1700 hours due to runway maintenance work. Hence, flights schedules to and fro Mumbai will be affected during this period. All passengers flying during that time are requested to check their respective flight status online during this period.

NYC&Company, New York City’s official, destination marketing organisation, is leading a tourism delegation to Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi from September 16-23 to promote travel to New York City. The tourism delegation is part of NYC & Company’s trade and media efforts to promote the “new” NYC in the Indian market. “New York City welcomed an estimated 283,000 visitors from India in 2015, reflecting a growth of 9% since the previous year.” said Makiko Matsuda Healy, Senior Vice President Global Tourism Development. “The City maintains its position as one of the most desirable destinations for both business and leisure travellers from India.” In 2015, New York City welcomed a record 58.3 million visitors, an increase of 1.8 million visitors over a year ago. Visitation for 2015 comprised 46 million domestic and 12.3 million international visitors, both all-time highs. In 2015 a record 6.1 million meetings and conventions delegates visited the City’s five boroughs, contributing to the total 12.3 million business travelers that came to New York City. New York City is the nation’s number one big city destination, the number one port-of-entry for foreign visitors, and has the highest share of overseas visitation to the U.S. – approximately one-third. NYC & Company member businesses joining the delegation include Broadway Inbound, Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and One World Observatory, who will be conducting one-on-one meetings and workshops with various travel trade partners.

Thomas Cook India Limited’s education and training vertical, Centre of Learning, felicitated 270 students of the 2015-2016 batch at its fifth Convocation Ceremony held at the Indian Merchants Chamber, Mumbai. The ceremony was graced by the Chief Guest Craig Astridge, Regional Head, Marketing and Commercial Services, Asia-Pacific International Air Transport Association. Other guests at the event included Lokesh Matta – Regional Training Business Development Manager, South Asia at International Air Transport Association (IATA) along with Soraya Homchuen – Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head – Marketing, Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India), and Smeeta Gulvady,‎ Vice President & Head- Centre of Learning at Thomas Cook (India). The Centre of Learning Convocation Ceremony honoured its students who had successfully completed the Travel Professional Program, a Post Graduate Course in Travel & Tourism Management, Certificate Course in World Tour Management, IATA. Scholarship certificates and special prizes were awarded to top performers of Centre of Learning’s Travel Professional Program – a Post Graduate course in Travel & Tourism Management.

Effective October 30, 2016, Air China will fly four weekly non-stop flights between Mumbai and Beijing. The airline will operate Airbus A330-300 on this route. The flight CA890 from Mumbai will depart at 0230 hours and arrive in Beijing at 1130 hours four times a weeks. While CA889 will depart from Beijing at 1940 hours and arrive in Mumbai at 0100 hours.

Air India Express will connect Sharjah with Chandigarh and Tiruchirapalli (in Tamil Nadu) from September. The airline will introduce three non-stop flights per week each from Chandigarh (IXC) and Tiruchirapalli (TRZ), to add Sharjah International Airport, bringing the total number of its routes between Sharjah and Indian destinations up to seven. India is one of the United Arab Emirates’ leading trade partners, accounting for some 9.8 percent of the country’s total non-oil trade, buying 14.9 percent of the Emirates’ exports and 8.7 percent of its re-exports. The total volume of bilateral trade between India and the UAE is expected to increase from $60 billion in 2014 to $100 billion by the year 2020. India is also the largest single origin of investors for Sharjah’s Hamriyah Free Zone and Sharjah International Airport Free Zone (SAIF Zone). Air India Express has been expanding its services to destinations in the UAE, including daily Mumbai-Dubai, Mumbai-Sharjah, New Delhi-Dubai and New Delhi-Abu Dhabi routes, which it added earlier this year. According to the airline, the number of its weekly flights between India and the UAE increased from 107 flights to 146 flights per week before the summer. The low-cost airline currently operates five routes with a total of 15 weekly flights to Sharjah International Airport. Air India Express now flies direct to Sharjah from Kochi (COK), Kozhikode (CCJ), Mumbai (SAHAR), New Delhi (DEL), Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) and Varanasi (VNS. India is well connected to Sharjah, with Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia operating flights between Sharjah and 13 Indian destinations. Jet Airways, India’s second largest airline, operates direct daily flights on Sharjah-Kochi and Sharjah-Mangaluru (IXE) routes.