Category Archives: Aviation

SpiceJet has announced a slew of new international flights. The airline has already opened bookings for Mumbai-Bangkok flight which is effective 17 May, 2019. SpiceJet will soon connect Mumbai with Hong Kong, Jeddah, Dubai, Colombo, Dhaka, Riyadh, and Kathmandu. The airline has also announced 77 flights which includes 48 flights connecting Mumbai, 16 flights connecting Delhi and 8 flights between Mumbai and Delhi. The airline has also announced the launch of 12 new domestic flights connecting the key metros of Mumbai and Delhi. To counter the ongoing crisis resulting in a huge shortage of capacity in the Indian aviation market, the airline has been consistently working towards introducing new flights and frequencies to restore normalcy. The airline has in the past few weeks introduced a host of new flights from Mumbai to Madurai, Jammu (via Srinagar), Dehradun, Guwahati, Jaipur, Amritsar, Mangalore, Coimbatore besides additional frequencies to Chennai, Delhi, Patna, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Budget-carrier of Singapore Airlines group, Scoot has commenced its daily non-stop flight from Singapore to Thiruvananthapuram as the airline also announced to cease its operations from Lucknow by June-end owing to weak demand on the route. The inaugural flight took off from Singapore on Tuesday with a 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft at around 8:40 pm local time and reached the Thiruvananthapuram airport at around 10 pm local time, said the airline in a statement. After Thiruvananthapuram, Scoot is planning to start flights to Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam later this year. Commenting on the launch, Vinod Kannan, Chief Commercial Officer, Scoot, “The transfer of SilkAirs services to Scoot is intended to further optimise the SIA Groups resources and present a better match of capacity to demand. Scoot is well- poised to provide competitive pricing and strengthen Scoots presence in the India market.” With Thiruvananthapuram, Scoot now flies to eight cities in the country – Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Tiruchirappalli. However, while the services to Lucknow will be discontinued after June 29, the services on the Singapore- Bengaluru route will be operated by the parent Singapore Airlines, effective May 16, the airline said.

IndiGo has recently opened reservation for its expanded service to Kathmandu, where the airline has scheduled 2nd daily Delhi–Kathmandu flight. From 20 June, the new flight will operate in the afternoon hours, with Airbus A320.

SpiceJet has introduced business class on its flights post acquiring 737-800 aircraft from grounded Jet Airways’ fleet, allowing passengers to book business class with fares at 30-40% less expensive than its competitors. Starting May 11, the airline will offer business class tickets on domestic routes between major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It is believed that average business class fares would moderate in the coming days since Jet Airways, the largest provider of business class seats, shut operations last month. SpiceJet has inducted around eight Jet Airways’ aircraft with unchanged seat configuration including the business class cabin. For instance, SpiceJet is offering fares at Rs 32,000 for return journey on the Delhi-Mumbai route, as compared to around Rs 46,000 offered by other full-service carriers like Vistara and Air India. On the Delhi-Bengaluru route, SpiceJet is charging return fare at Rs 40,000 for a two-way travel, compared to Rs 53,000 offered by both Air India and Vistara.

Asiana Airlines, South Korea’s second-biggest carrier, will be shutting its India operations from July 8 along with two routes in Russia.  The airline will also suspend its first-class service in a move to improve profitability and enhance safety. Asiana Airlines website says that it is now only taking bookings until July 7 from Delhi to Incheon. 

SpiceJet has announced the launch of 12 new domestic flights connecting the key metros of Mumbai and Delhi with a host of cities on its domestic network. SpiceJet has introduced new flights on the Delhi-Vishakhapatnam-Delhi and Delhi-Kochi-Delhi sectors. The airline will also enhance its operations on the Mumbai-Bengaluru-Mumbai (5th frequency), Mumbai-Gorakhpur-Mumbai (2nd frequency), Mumbai-Chennai-Mumbai (5th frequency) and Delhi-Srinagar-Delhi (3rd frequency) sectors.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is now considering re-allocating the airline’s foreign traffic rights to Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo. Local carriers have set sight on lucrative routes such as Mumbai-London, Delhi-Dubai and Mumbai-Paris and want the government to distribute slots for these sectors. The ministry has asked airlines to give their fleet induction plan so that a fair decision on giving traffic rights could be taken. (Source: IANS)

Korean Air has implemented 0% agent commission on all tickets issued on and after May 1, 2019. The news comes in line with many other airlines withdrawing agent’s commissions completely. Earlier, Korean Air was offering as much as 5% commission for agents in India, which was higher than many other airlines, who still offer commissions.

IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) Tourism has launched a tour package of six nights and seven days to Ladakh, Sham Valley and Nubra Valley. IRCTC Tourism is the tourism arm of the Indian Railways, announced that the tour will start from Delhi via economy class of GoAir. While the tour will be starting on multiple dates, the tariff of the package starts at Rs. 46,430 per person, which is inclusive of taxes, according to IRCTC Tourism’s website. The package includes air tickets (Delhi-Leh-Delhi round trip), accommodation in hotel rooms, entrance/monument fees as per the itinerary, breakfast, lunch and dinner according to IRCTC’s website. The package also offers travel insurance for passengers.

Utilising the free slots vacated by Jet Airways, Air Asia India is all set to expand its capacity after commencement of additional flights from the Delhi airport effective May 20. The low-cost airline will launch additional flights to Indore, Bagdogra, Hyderabad and Ranchi from Delhi. The fares will start from Rs 3,079. The flight I5 752 will depart at 05:35 from Delhi and arrive at 07:05 in Indore while flying back at 07:35 and reaching Delhi by 08:55. The I5 744 flight to Ranchi will depart at 09:35 and reach the destination by 11:15. It will fly back to Delhi on 11:45 and reach at 13:50. The Delhi to Bagdogra flight I5 756 will fly at 14:30 and reach the destination by 16:40 while I5 757 will fly back to Delhi on 17:10 and reach by 19:20 . The Delhi-Hyderabad flight will take off at 19:50 and reach Hyderabad by 22:10 and it fly back to Delhi at 22:50 and reach Delhi by 1:00. The airline inducted its 20th aircraft in February and is now eligible to fly overseas, prior to necessary approval from DGCA.