Category Archives: Aviation

India and Greece have signed an open skies agreement which will allow airlines from India to operate unlimited number of flights to Greece while Greek carriers have been granted unlimited traffic rights to six Indian metro cities which are Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai. “Greece has become the first country to have an open sky agreement with India under the new policy,” said Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. At present, there are no direct flights between India and Greece and passengers travel one stop via Gulf states or Turkey to Greece. Prior to this, India had entered into an open skies agreement with the US and Britain. The open skies with Britain covers airports excluding London Heathrow. (Source: Business Standard)

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in various areas of airport operations, including security, passenger experience, cargo, airport development, consulting and training. The MoU was signed by Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific, and Hari Marar, BIAL’s President for Airport Operations, on the sidelines of an industry event in New Delhi. This MoU is the first of its kind that IATA has signed with an Indian airport. One of the highlights of the MoU could see IATA and BIAL implementing trials of new technologies and processes, and testing concepts at Bangalore International Airport. “This will place Bangalore International Airport in the forefront of airport operations. These trials will ensure that global best practice solutions can be appropriately adapted to the Indian environment, and will provide guidance for rolling out the implementation to other Indian airports,” said Clifford. The IATA Fast Travel initiative, Passenger Facilitation program and Smart Security are among the initiatives being considered as part of the MoU. “An important objective of the MoU is to promote the efficient development of civil aviation in India to meet growing demand. By 2035, India’s passenger traffic is forecast to exceed 400 million passengers, more than double that of today. The industry will support 19 million jobs and $172 billion of India’s GDP. But for this potential to become reality, India’s airports need to have the necessary infrastructure capacity while implementing efficient processes that embrace the latest technologies,” said Clifford.

India ranked 1st in offering the best value for international and domestic flights worldwide with an average flight cost of $3.25 per 100 kms of travel, factoring in both domestic and international journeys according to ‘The Aviation Price Index’, analysed by Kiwi.com. At the other end of the ranking, United Arab Emirates calculated at a cost over 30 times higher, at $105.71 per 100km of travel. Oliver Dlouhý, Chief Executive Officer, Kiwi.com, says, “We always aim to offer travellers the best possible deals, and hope this ranking informs them on the countries from which they can expect the most cost effective airfare, and assist them in booking the best value journey.” A million fights were analysed to find an average price of domestic and international flights on a low cost and a legacy airline from each of the countries. Domestic flights were calculated by averaging flight costs from the country’s capital to up to five major cities within the country (where available), or a major city in a neighbouring country where no domestic flights were available, whilst international costs were calculated from the capital of each country to up to five international hubs within the same continent. All flights were checked for the same dates of travel (or neighbouring dates where necessary) on- and off-season, taking into account the same destinations and travel scheduling.  China offered the least expensive international flights on both low cost and legacy airlines, at $1.22 and $2.84 respectively per 100km of travel; United Arab Emirates offered the most expensive domestic flights on both low cost and legacy airlines, at $181.38 and $202.36 respectively per 100km of travel; Canada offered the most expensive international flights on …

IndiGo will introduce new daily non-stop flights to Port Blair from Kolkata and Chennai effective September 28 and September 30, 2016, respectively. Port Blair will also be connected to Delhi (via Kolkata) and Hyderabad (via Chennai). The airline will also launch additional frequencies with daily non-stop flight between Delhi & Kolkata, Delhi & Chennai and Hyderabad & Varanasi sectors. The arrival fares for Kolkata-Port Blair flight is Rs 3499, Chennai-Port Blair flight is Rs 4499, Delhi-Port Blair flight is Rs 5999. Speaking on the launch of new flights and the addition of the new destination, Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo said, “We are extremely pleased about adding Port Blair as our 41st destination. It is going to be an important part of our destination network, catering to the needs of both business as well as leisure travellers, looking to embrace the deep blue waters. In addition, IndiGo will connect holy city of Varanasi with Hyderabad with daily non-stop service. Clearly, these are exciting times for the aviation industry and for us, as we are now in the 11th year of operation. We thank our flyers for their unflinching support in these past 10 years and we will continue to provide them an on time, hassle free and affordable flying experience.” On the international sector, IndiGo in August launched first daily non-stop flight between Chandigarh-Dubai and second daily non-stop on Kochi-Dubai sector. On the domestic front, IndiGo also recently introduced additional frequencies in Agartala – Kolkata sector, 1st non-stop flight on the Kolkata-Visakhapatnam-Kolkata sector and 5th daily non-stop flight between Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Dragonair has introduced the A320 Business and Economy class seats with new on-demand inflight entertainment system, StudioKA, from September 2, 2016. A comprehensive inflight entertainment system will be made available on Dragonair’s A320 fleet for the very first time in India, where each passenger can access their own choice of entertainment via the wireless IFE. The Business class passengers will be provided with tablets for IFE, whereas the Economy class passengers will be able to download the StudioKA app on their personal devices via the inflight Wi-Fi service. Moreover, Dragonair has also upped the comfort offered in-flight with the vision to truly enhance their passengers’ travel experience. Rajesh Menon, Regional Sales & Marketing Manager-South Asia, said, “We constantly strive to introduce services that can elevate the travel experience for our customers and make for a ‘Life Well Travelled’ experience. The east India market has seen a significant growth in the last few years. The new product suite onboard the A320 fleet, on all our flights from Kolkata is a great boost to this trend. The introduction of our new interactive Inflight Entertainment system, enhanced seats will usher in a combination of top notch entertainment, comfort and practicality. We are sure that our new enhancements will provide our valued customers with another reason to fly Dragonair.”

Scoot will commence its Jaipur–Singapore flight from October 2. Scoot has named its first plane landing in Jaipur ‘KamaScootra’ taking inspiration from the ancient Indian text. With this, India becomes the second country after Singapore to inspire an aircraft name after it for Scoot Airlines. The plane will have 335 seats, including 21 premium economy. There will be three flights every week from Jaipur to Singapore till October 29 and afterwards, the frequency will be increased to four. Bharath Mahadevan, Country Head, India, Scoot, says, “At this point, our focus in India is building guest awareness on our propositions – value, choices, innovation, and service with Scootitude–and getting them to experience why Scoot has been ranked Asia-Pacific’s top LCC for two years running. With Jaipur, we take another step towards the target of steadily increasing our operations in India.” The Singapore Airline Group will offer affordable fares from Jaipur to Singapore and other destinations like Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Bangkok. The fares will range from Rs. 4,699 onwards. The sale period starts on September 01 and ends on September 11, 2016.

To mark the occasion of India’s 70th Independence Day, Lufthansa Passenger Airlines made every passenger feel special by extending an Indian reception at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport. On August 15, 2016, Lufthansa passengers were greeted by ground staff donned traditional attire and tri-colour decorations. In addition, passengers were gifted sweets as well as an Indian tri-colour upon check-in. With this initiative, Lufthansa once again demonstrated that it is an airline with a “Soul of Germany and a Heart of India”.

Etihad Airways has launched its annual global sales campaign, targeted at business and economy class guests, with fares available on a wide range of destinations served across the world and fares available for travel until June 2017. Guests can make the most of this offer over seven days, by booking via its local travel agent or its website between now and 4 September, 2016. The sale will offer up to 40 per cent off fares from 11 gateway cities that Etihad Airways operates to in India to some of the world’s most popular destinations across Europe, and the Americas. In addition, members of the airline’s loyalty programme, Etihad Guest, will continue to earn miles on all fares in the sale. The sale will cover a wider range of cities including those served by the Etihad Airways Partners that include airberlin, Alitalia, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Etihad Regional, Jet Airways and NIKI. Daniel Barranger, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Etihad Airways, said: “We have continued to expand our global network this year and add further aircraft to the fleet, ensuring we have a high quality product throughout our aircraft and available to the millions of guests who choose to fly with us each year. By including our partner airlines in our new offer, we are providing access to a larger list of destinations and a combined fleet of over 700 aircraft, ensuring we can meet every guest’s personal requirements.”

Effective October 30, 2016, Air China will fly four weekly non-stop flights between Mumbai and Beijing. The airline will operate Airbus A330-300 on this route. The flight CA890 from Mumbai will depart at 0230 hours and arrive in Beijing at 1130 hours four times a weeks. While CA889 will depart from Beijing at 1940 hours and arrive in Mumbai at 0100 hours.

Garuda Indonesia, the national carrier for Indonesia, has partnered with Sabre AirCentre Enterprise Operations portfolio, making Sabre Corporation its primary airline operations technology provider. Sabre technology will power connect airline operations, improving airline profitability and customer experience as Garuda pushes international expansion. Sabre Airline Solutions’ Operations and Crew Technology Platform will enhance Garuda’s aircraft tracking, disruption control and prevention, and crew management operations. “Southeast Asia’s airlines operate in an environment of resource-constrained infrastructure and volatile weather conditions. We are working with carriers in the region to create a more connected airline that can optimise operations regardless of these regional challenges. Using more flexible, reliable and scalable technology, Garuda will improve crew and fleet utilisation and safety, drive operational efficiencies and introduce quicker schedule recovery –ensuring a better and more consistent traveller experience,” says Dasha Kuksenko, Vice President and Regional General Manager, Sabre Airline Solutions, Asia Pacific. Garuda recorded a 13.4 percent increase in available seat kilometers (ASK) in first quarter of 2016. Benny Butarbutar, Vice President-Corporate Communications, Garuda Indonesia, added that Sabre’s technology will support the airlines’ growth plans. “Sabre’s enterprise operations solutions will give us a far more sophisticated approach to managing our operations, crew and the impact of disruptions. This in turn will help us improve profitability and drive customer loyalty. As we pursue further international network growth, which is critical to our long-term strategy, the platform will also help us streamline operations across multiple geographies,” said Benny.