Tag Archives: Mumbai

VFS Global has opened a Turkey Visa Application Centre in Mumbai on July 1. It was inaugurated by Erdal Sabri Ergen, Turkish Consul General in Mumbai.  He was accompanied by other dignitaries from the Turkish Consulate, and members of VFS Global staff. The new facility is located at Urmi Axis Building, Mahalaxmi. This inauguration comes close on the heels of the contract signing between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and VFS Global in March 2016, to roll out centres in 18 cities across India, the Maldives and Nepal, namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Puducherry and Thiruvananthapuram in India, and Malé (the Maldives) and Kathmandu (Nepal).

In a bid to expand its India portfolio, Paul Gregorowitsch, CEO, Oman Air, said that Oman Air wants to increase its weekly flights from the current 126 from Muscat to 175 weekly flights by 2018. He said, “We currently fly double daily flights to six out of the 11 destinations in India with 21,147 seats. Our current bilateral agreement allows us only so much. If we are allowed more, we will opt to go triple daily to these six same cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad as our load factors are already close to 90 per cent thanks to the travel trade.” Gregorowitsch was visiting Mumbai to talk about Oman’s national carrier’s growth, strategy and expansion plans. The airline also hosted its agent partners for a networking and Iftar party. The airline celebrates 23 years of its India operations.

Costa Cruises is all set to sail from Mumbai starting December 2016 until March 2017. Nalini Gupta, Head, Costa Cruises India and MD, Lotus Destinations, said, “Costa cruise will be homeporting Costa neoClassica in Mumbai port from December 23, 2016 to March 18, 2017. During this period, we will be doing seven nights sailing from Mumbai to Maldives and seven nights return to Mumbai with interesting Indian ports enroute.” The move would finally put India on the cruising map. The seven day itinerary ex-Mumbai goes to Mangalore and then to Cochin, and finally to Maldives. The 7 day itinerary ex-Maldives takes guests to Colombo), Goa and finally Mumbai. The cruise liner that will be operating on this route can accommodate around 1800 people.

National carrier, Air India has become the first airline to launch self check-in kiosks for its domestic fliers that aims to make the check-in process expeditious. The exclusive service presently covers 26 domestic centers at Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, New Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam and Varanasi. Under this initiative, started on May 1, 2016, customers can procure the boarding pass by using the self-check-in kiosks also known as CUSS (Common Use Self Service) near the check-in area at the airport.

GoAir has relocated its arrival operations from Terminal 1A to Terminal 1B at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai. In essence, GoAir’s complete operations, both departures and arrivals at Mumbai, shall now operate from Terminal 1B. Effective March 15, GoAir will be able to offer customers convenient flight transfers and under a single roof in Terminal 1B at Mumbai. The last GoAir flight arriving at Terminal 1A was Delhi-Bombay flight, G8 342, at 23.55hrs while the first GoAir flight that arrived at Terminal 1B was G8 364 Ahmedabad-Bombay at 1.00hrs

In a network restructuring of its overseas offices, VisitBritain has decided to make Mumbai its head office in India. At present the main office is in New Delhi and while they will continue to maintain this office, they plan to increase their focus and trade relations from Mumbai. “We are looking at a refocus in India and moving our major office to Mumbai so that we are much more aligned to the travel trade and work more closely with the trade to build product knowledge,” says Patricia Yates, Strategy & Communications director, VisitBritain. In the first nine months of 2015, UK saw a 13 per cent growth in Indian visitors but the total spend was down by three per cent.

According to the latest Hotel Price Index report from Hotels.com, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru topped the charts where travellers paid the most for hotel accommodation in India in 2015. Mumbai is where all travellers, both domestic and international visitors, paid the most for accommodation with a three per cent increase to Rs 8,160 per night. Delhi, which for two consecutive years witnessed an increase in tariff prices, this time marginally fell by one per cent to Rs 6,807.

Following in the footsteps of Air India, Jet Airways will also relocate its domestic operations to the Terminal 2 at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) from March 15, 2016. This will lead to the integration of domestic and international flight operations at one terminal. Flight 9W 484 from Mumbai to Kolkata departing at 02:25 hrs will be the first Jet Airways domestic flight to operate from T2 on March 15, 2016. The first arriving flight will be 9W 628 at 00:10 hrs from Kolkata. Gaurang Shetty, Sr. Vice President – Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “The integration of domestic and international operations at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 will enable Jet Airways to transform Mumbai into a critical international transit hub.”

IndiGo has launched three new daily non-stop flights on the Delhi–Dehradun route, and will further connect Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad as a one stop flight. Fares for Delhi to Dehradun flight is Rs 1,126, while Mumbai to Dehradun via Delhi would cost Rs 4,069, Bengaluru to Dehradun via Delhi fare is Rs 5,078, Hyderabad to Dehradun via Delhi is Rs 4,253. Dehradun is not IndiGo’s 35th domestic and 40th overall destination. The airport at Dehradun, the state capital of Uttrakhand, also serves as the gateway to nearby cities of Mussoorie, Haridwar and Rishikesh. The airline has also connected Chennai to Bengaluru and Kolkata to Jaipur with its third flight, while also commencing additional daily non-stop flights between Kolkata and Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram & Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. In addition, IndiGo will also connect Jaipur to Hyderabad with the launch of its second daily non-stop flight, with effect from March 15, 2016. Fares for Chennai to Bengaluru flight is Rs 1,674, Kolkata to Delhi Rs 4,036, Hyderabad to Chennai Rs 2,129, and Delhi to Chennai Rs 3,633.

With effect from March 21, 2016, Jet Airways will launch a new daily flight between Delhi and Muscat, Oman, at fares starting Rs 15, 782. The addition of this new flight from the airline’s strategic hub in Delhi will further strengthen the airline’s growing international network and enhance flight connectivity from Northern India, SAARC and ASEAN and to the Gulf region. India and Oman are linked by historical maritime trade linkages and the important role of the Indian expatriate community in the development of Oman. With the launch of the new flight, Jet Airways will operate a total of four daily flights between India and Muscat. This includes flights from Mumbai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Gaurang Shetty, Senior Vice-President, Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “It is indeed a proud moment for us at Jet Airways to launch our maiden international flight between Delhi and Muscat. This is a significant milestone for enhancing the strong ties between India and the Sultanate of Oman. With the launch of this flight, Jet Airways guests from Northern India, SAARC and ASEAN regions will have the option of travelling to Oman via Delhi.” The airline will deploy a Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these new services, offering Premiere and Economy guests an in-flight product that is among the best in its class, warm service, as well as delectable cuisine and convenient schedules.