Akasa Air, India’s youngest airline, today introduced its in-flight safety manual in Braille for persons with visual impairments. In keeping with the airline’s core value of empathy and ensuring that each of our customers have a warm and consistent experience, the Braille in-flight safety manual provides an explanation of the safety instructions, in English and Hindi. Akasa Air has partnered with The Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) to develop this Braille in-flight safety manual. The Braille in-flight safety manual provided to passengers onboard upon request, covers detailed instructions on seatbelt operation, location of emergency exits and life jackets, tactile diagrams that help orient passengers to aircraft and aircraft positions and other essential safety information. Commenting on the launch, Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, Akasa Air, said, “We are committed to being socially cohesive with a focus on being dependable, warm, efficient, and reliable and our Braille in-flight safety manual is a testimony to this commitment. We are extremely grateful to Dr. Sam Taraporevala and the entire team at XRCVC for their guidance and constant support in our endeavour towards inclusive travel.” Dr. Sam Taraporevala, Executive Director, XRCVC who helped develop the manual, said “The Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), a department of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai (www.xrcvc.org), is a national level support and advocacy centre for persons with disabilities. XRCVC was set up in 2003 as an Assistive Technology support centre for students with visual impairment in higher education. Akasa Air’s Braille in-flight safety manual is an example of an airline taking a step towards social inclusion.”

According to the research from Booking.com, 2023 will see 53 per cent millennials planning more last-minute trips whilst older generations will take comfort in planning ahead as the best opportunity to get a good deal. 

The new Assam Tourism Policy 2022 aims to guarantee and safeguard the effective standardization of processes and practices, to foster uniformity which can result in sustainability and an overall improvement in the quality of the tourism products.  

Naveen Kundu, Managing Director, EBIXCASH Travel Services said, “A lot of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India should be developed for MICE. I firmly believe, India has the potential to give the world 100 wonderful cities for MICE and the world should look forward to it.”    

The Insurance Regulator and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has made KYC norms mandatory for buying health, auto, home, etc for the purchase of all new insurance policies. The rule applies to all types of insurance–life, general, and health insurance.  

Naveen Kundu, MD, Ebixcash Travel & Holidays said, “With the G20 Presidency of India in 2023, there are a huge expectation. It’s a challenging time and G20 will test the tourism infrastructure and the tourism development of this country.”  

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has suggested fast-tracking the creation of a National Tourism Council on the lines of the GST council. Merely drafting a National Tourism Policy is not enough for the development of the tourism sector in the country, a Parliamentary committee has said. 

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO said, “In new Foreign Trade Policy, IATO recommended that the benefit of SEIS scheme should be continued for the tour operators and travel agencies for the next 5 years.”    

IATA said India’s decision to re-introduce coronavirus testing for international passengers is “disappointing and a step backwards” as the current situation is different from when the pandemic started around three years ago.

Akasa Air, India’s youngest airline, today inaugurated its maiden flight from Visakhapatnam, its tenth city, marking the airline’s foray into the state of Andhra Pradesh. Akasa Air will offer double daily flights on the Visakhapatnam-Bengaluru route; the second frequency with the added benefit of an early morning option will start from December 12, 2022. This launch to Visakhapatnam, a city playing a key role in India’s aviation growth story, further reiterates Akasa Air’s commitment towards enhancing regional connectivity and strengthening important transportation links in our country. The airline’s operations from Visakhapatnam will cater to the increased demand for travel from the city while offering its signature warm and reliable service to passengers on the most affordable fares. Earlier in December, Akasa Air announced the addition of Lucknow as the eleventh destination on its network, with flights connecting the city with Bengaluru and Mumbai, scheduled to commence from December 25, 2022. Since its launch in August this year, Akasa Air has been progressively scaling up its operations and by December end expects to cross over 500 weekly f lights on a total of sixteen routes across 11 cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Agartala, Pune, Visakhapatnam and Lucknow. It will continue to grow its network to establish a strong pan-India presence focusing on the metro to tier 2 & 3 route connectivity, using a fleet expansion plan that adds one new aircraft every 15 days. Akasa Air’s fleet size will be 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 and over the next four years, the airline will add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72 aircraft. Bookings for flights on Akasa Air are available …