Category Archives: Aviation

As part of its two year celebration, Vistara has increased its frequency between Delhi and Pune, starting January 9, 2017, to twice a day. The airline now offers a daily morning and evening departure from Delhi, except on Saturdays. The rapidly growing airline connects 20 destinations across India and a fleet of 13 A320s, serving more than 500 flights a week at present. Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara said, “We complete two years today and we are still as excited as we were on the day Vistara was born! It is extremely heartening to see that we have carved a niche for ourselves in the Indian aviation industry with our extraordinary products and services. Together with my entire team, I say a big ‘thank you’ to each and every customer and trade partner of ours, who has believed in us and helped us become stronger and more confident. It has been a challenging, yet extremely satisfying journey so far, and we promise to continue offering a seamless, world-class flying experience to our customers.” As part of the second anniversary celebrations, Vistara, in association with the NGO, Round Table India, took off with a group of less-privileged children and enabled a ‘Flight of Fantasy’ for them to Ahmedabad, where they had a day packed with fun-filled and educational activities, including visit to the Gandhi Ashram, play-acting the professions of their dreams at Kankaria Kids City and a boat ride to have the time of their lives. To celebrate the momentous milestone with its customers, Vistara has curated an exclusive menu of delectable desserts like Banana & Praline Bavarois and Toasted Almond & Chocolate Parfait, which is being served on especially designed …

Vistara has announced the addition of Amritsar and Leh to its network, starting March 1, 2017, and March 25, 2017, respectively. Vistara will fly direct flights from Delhi to the holy city of Amritsar from March 1, 2017, and from Mumbai, starting March 8, 2017. The airline will operate direct flights between Delhi and Leh on weekends from March 25, 2017 and thereafter, increase the frequency to daily flights starting May 10, 2017 onwards. Tickets are available for booking, starting Jan 6. Flights to Amritsar will initially operate 6 days a week from both Delhi and Mumbai (daily except Mondays), and will increase to daily flights in the summer. Leh flights will also increase from weekends only to daily flights in the summer. Commenting on the network expansion, Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara, said “We are very excited to begin the New Year with the addition of two new destinations to our growing network. The expansion further cements Vistara’s position in the domestic market as a committed player in the Indian aviation sector. An enormous number of pilgrims and tourists visit Amritsar throughout the year to pray at the Golden Temple and the city also draws visitors from across the globe for its rich culture and cuisine. Amritsar being among the 27 new smart cities to be developed by the Ministry of Urban Development, the city will also attract business travelers in time to come. Leh is another special tourist destination that has emerged to be a favorite amongst millions of Indians. Its Buddhist sites, nearby trekking areas and amazing landscapes are increasingly finding place in the bucket lists of global and local travelers. Both these destinations fit perfectly into …

Vistara now allows check-in services at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport to international passengers through partnerships with Air France, KLM and Japan Airlines. The Singapore Airlines’ Indian carrier aims to streamline international connections and improve convenience as passengers who avail this service will receive their boarding passes for all sectors of their journey and baggage will also be checked through to the final destination. “The through check-in facility will offer great convenience to customers connecting from domestic routes on Vistara to our foreign airline partners, while allowing inbound passengers to seamlessly,” said Sanjiv Kapoor, Vistara’s chief strategy & commercial officer. “We are delighted to partner with leading global airlines, Air France, KLM and Japan Airlines, in addition to our existing partnership with Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, and look forward to working together in providing a hassle-free air travel experience to our joint customers.”

Air India will connect Pune to Chandigarh for the first time with a direct flight from January 16, 2017. This new flight is yet another move to promote regional connectivity by the national carrier. The flight, AI 813 will take off from Chandigarh at 1050 hrs and arrive in Pune at 1320 hrs. The return flight AI 814 from Pune will depart at 1400 hrs and land in Chandigarh at 1630 hrs on all days except Saturday and Sunday. The non-stop flight will operate with an Airbus A-320 aircraft on the Pune-Chandigarh-Pune route. It will provide a much needed connectivity between the two cities and will help to promote industrial development and at the same time also give a fillip to tourism as passengers can avail of good connectivity to holiday destinations such as Kulu, Shimla and Manali in the north and Lonavala and Shirdi near Pune.

With expansion and consolidation as prime areas of focus, Air India plans to add 35 new planes this year, as well as more number of international as well as domestic routes, its CEO & MD Ashwani Lohani has said. “I expect almost 35 new planes to join the Air India family during 2017 and all of us need to be in full readiness to receive them, fill them and fly them,” he said in a New Year message to the employees. With the addition of new aircrafts, the group would have a fleet of more than 170 planes. Currently, the group has around 140 aircraft. While Air India has 106 planes, its low cost international arm Air India Express has 23 aircrafts. Besides, there are around 10 planed with Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the national carrier that operates in regional routes. “We are going to fly to many new international destinations and also connect new domestic destinations as part of the regional connectivity thrust of the government,” Lohani said, adding that fill more and fly more is the motto.

Mumbai airport’s domestic Terminal 1B has been renamed as Terminal 1 (T1), effective from January 9. Terminal 1B handled low-cost airline flights which will now be operated from T1. The Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL), which runs the airport, informed that this decision was taken to help in easy identification of the terminal and to ensure hassle-free transit for air travellers. At present, SpiceJet, Indigo and GoAir operate from this terminal. Vistara, Air India and Jet Airways operate from Terminal 2 (T2), which also caters to all international flights. MIAL further added that the shifting of Air India and Jet Airways to T2 has helped make transit between international and domestic flights convenient for transfer passengers, thereby saving time. (Source: Times of India)

Indigo’s new schedule starting January 1, 2017, will see 10 additional frequencies connecting Hyderabad to Goa, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam. The airline also took delivery of its 13th Airbus A-320 Neo ‘VT–ITH’ aircraft. With this aircraft, the airline now has a 125 aircraft fleet in its 125th month of operation. Aditya Ghosh, President and whole-time Director, IndiGo, said, “The delivery of the 125th aircraft in the 125th month of our operation is indeed a landmark occasion for us. It reinforces our commitment towards the industry and living our promise of providing the best flying experience to our passengers. The entire IndiGo team has worked extremely hard to reach where we are today and we are raring to go. Here’s wishing each of you a wonderful 2017.” The new schedule has connections from Hyderabad to Goa, Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar an Visakhapatnam.

Air India at London Heathrow is operating from Terminal-2 instead of Terminal 4, starting January 25, 2017, according to a communication from Air India to the travel industry. Terminal 2 is the designated Star Alliance Terminal at London Heathrow, which Air India will be sharing with 25 other Star Carriers. Air India will be operating out of Zone D. Terminal 2 has self-service Kiosk check-in for economy class passengers followed by bag drop. The check-in kiosk and bag drop will be shared with other airlines in Zone-D. Although, for Premium passenger, Air India will have dedicated counters.In view of self-service kiosk check-in at Ter-2, passenger may be encouraged to use web check-in, mobile check-in, advanced seat reservations etc. to have a smooth check-in experience at T-2.

India’s status as the fastest growing aviation market could be hampered because of infrastructure planning adequacies, a fast emerging shortage of skills, flawed policy initiatives, and weak regulatory oversight, suggests an extract from CAPA’s India Aviation Outlook 2017/18. CAPA estimates that India’s airlines reported a combined profit of $122 million in FY2016, the first time in a decade. Lower fuel prices combined with modest capacity growth and strengthening economic fundamentals were largely responsible for surging traffic and an improvement in airline financials in FY2016. Domestic traffic was up 21.2 per cent while international grew by a more modest 7.7 per cent. India’s domestic market is on track to surpass 100 million passengers in FY2017. After a strong FY2016, traffic growth has accelerated further in FY2017, with India likely to overtake Japan this year to become the world’s third largest domestic market behind the USA and China. However, the report states that risks are also heightened. The next financial year is expected to be the third consecutive year of domestic growth above 20 per cent. Growth could be as high as 25 per cent but may be tempered by 3-5 percentage points because of the impact of demonetisation. The introduction of the GST next year may possibly also have a short-term negative impact on economic growth for a couple of years until more positive results emerge. International traffic is expected to expand at 10-12 per cent in FY2017 and FY2018, but bilateral restrictions preclude achieving true potential, Traffic growth is being stimulated above its underlying demand as a result of excess capacity and competitive fares. The downward pressure on yields, combined with cost creep, is expected to push the consolidated industry …

Dubai-based airlines will not be allowed to add more flights to Indian cities until the Gulf emirate allots commercially and operationally feasible slots to Indian carriers at its airport, as per a media report. This clause will be part of a bilateral seat entitlement agreement that the two sides are set to sign soon, a senior official at the civil aviation ministry reportedly said. “We will agree on increasing seat entitlements between the two countries as carriers from both sides have exhausted their quota which allows each side to operate up to 65,200 seats a week,” he added. The government decided on this condition after Dubai rejected India’s request to provide commitment on slots for Indian carriers in the bilateral air services pact. India-Dubai is a busy route, and both Indian and Gulf carriers have been demanding increasing the seat capacity in the sector as they have exhausted their current quota, which allows each side to operate up to 65,200 seats a week. (Source: The Economic Times)