Tag Archives: Mumbai

Jet Airways will fly the largest aircraft in its fleet, the Boeing 777-300 ER, on the Mumbai-Amsterdam route with effect from Oct 30, 2016 to meet the growing demand on this key sector. Jet Airways is the only airline flying daily non-stop flights between Mumbai and Amsterdam. The Jet Airways’ Boeing 777 service offers a three-class configuration, comprising of eight First Class suites, 30 Premiere seats that open out into lie-flat beds, and 308 ergonomically designed seats in Economy. Jet Airways had commenced daily flights from Mumbai to Amsterdam on Mar 27, 2016. The capacity increase is in response to growing demand, particularly from business and corporate travellers. From Amsterdam, Jet Airways offers connectivity to 30 destinations across Europe and 11 destinations in the United States and Canada through its codeshare partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, “Our daily non-stop service connecting India’s commercial capital Mumbai and the key European hub Amsterdam has received excellent response since its launch. By deploying the 777-300ER aircraft, Jet Airways will be able to cater to the growing demand on this important sector at a time when trade and investment between India and Europe and North America is witnessing a healthy growth. The state-of-the-art wide body aircraft enables us to deliver a superior in-flight experience to our guests, along with the introduction of our signature First Class suites on this route.”

SriLankan Airlines has signed on board Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez as their brand ambassador. The letter of agreement was signed between SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajit Dias and Jacqueline Fernandez on July 30, 2016, at St. Regis Hotel, Mumbai. With this collaboration it made her, the face of SriLankan Airlines and the brand continues to strengthen its presence in India. Speaking on the occasion, Ajit Dias, Chairman, SriLankan Airlines, said “We are delighted to have Jacqueline Fernandez as the Brand Ambassador for SriLankan Airlines. Jacqueline’s strong connect, passion towards Sri Lanka and being an iconic profile in Sri Lanka aligns her naturally with the brand, just like our other two brand ambassadors, Mahila Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.”

The Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) successfully concluded its two-city roadshow in Bengaluru and Mumbai with a delegation of 30 sellers that included hotels, special event venues, DMCs, and airlines. The delegation was led by Nooch Homrossukhon, Director (Meetings and Incentive), TCEB, with the top management of the Meetings and Incentive department. “The agenda for this roadshow was to promote newer destinations catering to the premium segment such as the riverside properties and the Silverlake vineyard in Pattaya. We also want to talk about options for CSR activities that Indian corporate companies can participate in, in Thailand,” she said. TCEB also hosted an exclusive networking dinner for corporate clients in Mumbai after the roadshow. The bureau recently launched its own location-based mobile application for corporates called ‘Biz Thailand’ that helps them find restaurants, attractions, entertainment, hotels, meeting spaces and convention centres around them.

Come August, TravelShop Turkey is organising workshops for the travel trade in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The 6-city workshop will begin with New Delhi on August 1, then move to Ahmedabad (August 2), Mumbai (August 3), Kolkata (August 4), Chennai (August 5), and Bengaluru (August 6). The workshops will showcase Turkey’s latest programs for the Indian market. Participants will also get an oopportunity to learn how to sell Turkey as destination, meet with Culture & Tourism Counsellor, TST staff, Turkish Airlines staff, meet with Turkish hotels, and win free Fam trips all around Turkey. “As we know Indian market is very sensitive, specially for food, jain, veg and non veg. thats why it would be good for you to come and get the latest information for visa, payment methods, guides, itineraries, activities, night life and transportation,” said Murtaza Kalender, General Director, TravelShop Turkey.

Travelport and OYO has announced a new agreement whereby 6,000 hotel properties offered by OYO will be made available through Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform to its travel agency users, both in India and around the world. OYO currently operates in more than 180 Indian cities, including Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Goa. Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform connects hotel providers and independent properties to its 68,000 connected agencies worldwide, in turn, offering travellers more hotel choices as Travelport now offers 650,000 unique hotel properties. Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer, at OYO said, “We are pleased to partner with Travelport and take our offerings to a wider audience. Both OYO and Travelport are recognised for leveraging innovative technology capabilities. We are confident of utilising this synergy to unlock new growth areas for both partners.” The agreement with OYO is the latest example of Travelport responding to the needs of its agents to add the hotel content they need in their local regions.  It also responds to the needs of hoteliers by giving them access to the international travel booking industry. Once on Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform, travel agents globally have access to the hotel content through their normal workflow, eliminating time-consuming and inefficient bookings across different channels.

Tourism New Zealand’s Kiwi Link India is more focused this year with only Mumbai on the agenda. The annual travel trade event, scheduled to take place from July 11-13, opened in Mumbai with the Kiwi delegation including 35 operators, four airlines, and Immigration New Zealand who met 80 pre-registered Indian buyers. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager South & South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, who is leading the New Zealand delegation, says, “Kiwi Link is aimed at educating our trade partners about the destination and understanding their clients’ requirements. Last year, we held it in Mumbai and New Delhi but this time we will focus only on Mumbai.” Tourism New Zealand will also be hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai for the first two days of the event. He added that the tourism board is looking to invest heavily in India. “We will invest more with our travel partners which means we will be having a lot of communication with them, educate them about New Zealand and understand the requirements of Indian travellers. This year ending May 2016, we recorded tourist arrivals of 48,000 from India, which is an increase from 45,000 Indians we received last year. But our research says that there are a lot more people in India who want to visit New Zealand,” Dixon says. He revealed that Tourism New Zealand has a total budget of USD 8 million but refused to comment on the number that has been directed to India.

Tourism New Zealand’s annual travel trade event, Kiwi Link India, is scheduled to take place from July 11-13, 2016, in Mumbai. The event will include full-day workshops on July 11 and 12 and a frontline training for travel trade agents in Mumbai on July 13, 2016. The event provides the opportunity for the Indian travel agents, product managers and planners to interact with New Zealand operators and understand the new developments in the tourism sector. Kevin Bowler, Chief Executive, Tourism New Zealand, says, “Kiwi Link India 2016 will see participation from 35 operators from New Zealand, four airlines, Immigration New Zealand and 80 Indian delegates. Tourism New Zealand will also be hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai for the first two days of the event. It is one of Tourism New Zealand’s biggest trade shows and is very important to us as India is one of our priority emerging markets. Having a well-informed travel trade is critical to converting interest into bookings. This event provides an ideal platform for us to strengthen relations with our stakeholders in the Indian travel trade, supporting their ability to sell travel to New Zealand, particularly during the shoulder seasons”.

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.