Tag Archives: New Delhi

Election of office bearers for the Northern India chapter of TAFI will be held tomorrow at The Park hotel in New Delhi. Contenders for the post of Chairman are Khushvinder Sarna of The Federal Travels & Tours and Vijay Kumar Gupta of Golden Phoenix Travel. Arush Mittal of Blue Skies Travels and Tours stands unopposed for post of Treasurer.

Raul de la Rosa Machado, Counsellor, Embassy of Spain, New Delhi, says that at this time of involuntary inaction in the tourism sector, it is the right time to get educated about Spain. Talking about the upcoming Virtual Spanish Travel Show, he said, “This is the time to prepare ourselves for the so-called new normal, to gather all information possible.”

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) conducted its 38th Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually with members attending the proceedings online while the Executive Committee (EC) presented the financial year’s report physically at The Park Hotel, New Delhi. Sharing updates, the association also put forward its expectations from the next union budget of the government which includes deemed industry status, removal of cascading effects of GST on tourism industry, withdrawal of TCS for overseas tour packages, extension of SEIS among other.  

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) will have its elections on April 25, 2020 at The Ashok, New Delhi. The information was shared by Rajesh Mudgill, Hony. Secretary, IATO during the last interactive luncheon meeting of the current Executive Committee of the association took place on February 28. He said that official notification about the election will be soon shared with the members. Akshay Kumar, CEO, Mercury Himalayan Explorations will be the returning officer.

In order to handle the increase in passenger traffic on the Tel Aviv-New Delhi sector, Air India has announced that they are doubling the frequency on the route to six flights per week from April. Air India started with three flights a week to Tel-Aviv in 2018 and would make this to six flights-a-week from April 1 this year. The announcement was made by Indian Ambassador in Israel Sanjeev Singla during the Republic Day celebrations at the Indian Embassy in Delhi recently. “Direct Air India flight connectivity between New Delhi and Tel Aviv is a game-changer in our bilateral relations reflecting the importance we attach to people-to-people linkages and connectivity. The direct flights have greatly enhanced movement of people between the two countries resulting in an increase in tourism and also facilitating the travel of the business community.” Every flight from Tel Aviv has almost 50 per cent of passengers travelling beyond Delhi to domestic destinations within India and international destinations including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Shanghai, Hongkong, Sri Lanka and Nepal, a press release issued by Air India said.

Boeing has named Salil Gupte as its India head, effective March 18, 2019. Gupte succeeds Prat Kumar, who was appointed Vice President and Program Manager of Boeing’s F-15 fighter aircraft programme in November last year.  He will be based in New Delhi and report to Marc Allen, President of Boeing International. Gupte will join as President of Boeing India from the aircraft maker’s wholly-owned subsidiary Boeing Capital Corporation, where he served as Vice President. In his new position, Gupte will advance the development and execution of Boeing’s strategy in India, integrate business activities across company’s commercial airplanes, Boeing defence, space and security, its global services, and lead the growth and productivity initiatives in India. He will also manage Boeing’s partnerships with the government and business stakeholders with a team of over 3,000 employees and joint venture personnel located across the country. His leadership will extend to cover Boeing’s large supply chain presence in India, its engineering and technology centre in Bengaluru, and Boeing joint venture with Tata in Hyderabad. “I’m thrilled to be joining my colleagues at Boeing India during such an exciting time, when the business is growing exponentially and we are building the future of global aircraft manufacturing, services, supply chain, engineering, technology and innovation, right here in India,” Gupte said. Besides Boeing, he has also worked with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs as an investment banker in the aviation and infrastructure sectors. Source: PTI

WOW air has launched three weekly flights from New Delhi to Iceland. According to the airline, it will operate three weekly flights from New Delhi, connecting passengers to North America and Europe through its hub in Iceland. Post the announcement of WOW air in India in May earlier this year, the airline also began its fully functional booking office in New Delhi and recruited Indian crew, a first for any international airline operating out of India. Kiran Jain, Managing Director, WOW air, said, “Our ultra-low fares reflect the need for affordable travel from India to transatlantic destinations. It also gives an opportunity for Iceland to open up to the world and as a tourist destination to Indian travellers. Staying true to our mission of enabling everyone to fly by offering reasonably low fares to our destinations, we are hopeful that more people will have an opportunity to fly around the world.” At present, the airline has four fare options including “WOW basic, WOW plus, WOW comfy and WOW premium”.

Jazeera Airways has announced the launch of its services to New Delhi from December 15. The airline, which commenced operations in India last year, currently flies to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi and Ahmedabad from the Gulf nation. The airline has also announced special one-way fare starting from Rs 10,599 for an Economy Class journey and Rs 19,146 for Business Class travel on the new route. Rohit Ramachandran, Chief Executive Officer, Jazeera Airways, said, “The introduction of services to New Delhi and the expansion of network will bring more choice to travellers to and from India, connecting them to Kuwait and other cities in the Gulf and the Middle East that are served within the airline’s network.” Source: PTI

Union Minister for Tourism (I/C) KJ Alphons has inaugurated the Tourist Facilitation and Information Counter at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. The counter is located at the T3 arrival gates of the airport. Opening the first-of-its-kind facilitation centre for visitors, Alphons said that this shall be of great help to the tourists visiting the country. He further added that the counter shall cater to non-English speaking tourists also as the counter will be connected to the 24*7 Helpline – ‘1363’ of the Tourism Ministry where the tourists can speak directly with the foreign language agents and get guidance in French, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic. The Ministry of Tourism has set-up this counter with an objective to provide 24*7 information to both domestic and international visitors arriving into IGI Airport, New Delhi. The Tourist Facilitation Counter will be manned by two staff members and a supervisor to answer the queries of the tourists and also guide them with information. The counter is also stocked with sufficient high-quality tourist literature and brochures to be provided to the tourists. Along with it, the Tourism Ministry is also starting facilitation counters in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Gaya and Varanasi.

With an average load factor exceeding 80 per cent and the increased demand on Air India’s New Delhi-Tel Aviv flight services, the national carrier has added a fifth weekly flight starting November 26, 2018. The airline will now fly five days a week including Monday in addition to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday on the 256-seater Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The aircraft departs from New Delhi at 16:50 pm and arrives in Tel Aviv at 20:45 pm (local time). On its return leg, the flight departs from Tel Aviv at 22:15 pm and lands in Delhi on the following day at 8:15 am. In addition to Air India’s announcement, Israeli carrier El Al has introduced a new Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on its Mumbai-Tel Aviv route. The new airplane has a capacity of 279 seats in a four-class configuration of First, Business, Economy Plus and Economy. El Al is the only airline currently servicing the direct Mumbai-Tel Aviv sector with three weekly non-stop flights. The aircraft departs at 12:20 pm every Sunday, Monday and Thursday from Mumbai and arrives in Tel Aviv at 16:50 pm (local time). On its return leg, the plane departs from Tel Aviv at 20:15 pm every Saturday and Sunday to land in Mumbai on the following day at 7:30 am. On Thursdays, the flight takes off at 8:30 am from Tel Aviv to reach Mumbai at 19:45 pm. These announcements have come at a time when Israel Ministry of Tourism has recorded a growth of 58 per cent with 48,800 Indian arrivals to the country from January to September 2018 vis-à-vis 30,800 Indian visitors during the same period in 2016.